THE 

A.F.  MORRISON 
MEMORIAL  LIBRARY 


ROBERT     HARLEY 
EARL    OF    OXFORD 


ROBERT  HARLEY,  EAKL  OF  OXFORD  AND  EARL  MORTIMER,  K.G. 

rrotn  a  pk litre  after  Sir  Giuifrey  k'uelUr  in  tht  National  Portrait  Gallery 


ROBERT     HARLEY 
EARL    OF    OXFORD 

r 
PRIME   MINISTER 
1710-1714 

A 

STUDY   OF  POLITICS   AND   LETTERS 

IN  THE  AGE   OF  ANNE 

BY 

E.    S.    I^OSCOE 


WITH  THIRTEEN  ILLUSTRATIONS 


New   York:    G.    P.    PUTNAM'S    SONS 

London:    METHUEN    &    CO. 

1902 


TO 

HELEN    CLERGUE 

TO  WHOM   I  AM   INDEBTED    FOR 
VALUABLE  AND  ENCOURAGING  ASSISTANCE 
DURING  THE  PREPARATION   OF  THIS  BOOK 


6565S2 


tj^'f*^^ 


PREFATORY     NOTE 

IT  was  the  intention  of  Swift  to  write  the  life  of 
Harley,  and  he  asked  the  second  Earl  of 
Oxford  to  search  among  his  father's  papers  for 
materials  for  this  work.  But  the  project  remained 
unfulfilled,  and  from  that  day  to  this  no  biography 
of  Robert  Harley  has  been  published ;  whatever 
opinion  one  may  form  of  him  either  as  a  politician 
or  a  man,  the  absence  of  a  separate  story  of  his 
life  is  an  inconvenience  to  the  student  of  the  age 
of  Anne,  on  which,  from  the  point  of  view  of  its 
relation  to  the  evolution  of  English  politics  and 
literature,  a  good  deal  yet  remains  to  be  said. 
Fortunately,  the  materials  for  such  a  work  have 
recently  become  more  accessible,  and  it  has  been  my 
endeavour  to  give  from  original  sources,  and  in  a 
short  space,  an  unbiassed  description  of  Harley 's 
life,  and  at  the  same  time  to  indicate  the  political 
influences  which  affected  his  career,  and  to  sketch 
his  relations  with  contemporary  statesmen,  and 
with  the  men  of  letters — more  especially  De  Foe 
and  Swift — by  whom  he  was  surrounded  during  his 
period  of  power. 

The  most  important  sources  of  information  on 


viii  PREFATORY   NOTE 

Harley's  life  are  the  manuscripts  of  the  Duke  of 
Portland,  which  are  preserved  at  Welbeck  Abbey, 
a  large  mass  of  which  have  lately  been  published 
by  the  Historical  Manuscripts  Commission.  They 
are  cited  in  this  work  as  the  Harley  Papers,  this 
being  the  sub-title  which  is  given  by  the  Com- 
mission to  the  volumes  of  the  Portland  Papers 
which  contain  this  collection.  In  the  following 
pages  there  are  some  passages  from  two  articles 
in  the  Edinburgh  Review  of  1898  and  1901  on 
these  papers,  which,  with  other  authorities,  are  more 
particularly  described  in  Appendix  III. 

I  have  to  thank  Mr.  Robert  W.  D.  Harley  of 
Brampton  Bryan  for  the  kind  manner  in  which  he 
placed  his  interesting  collection  of  MSS.  at  my 
disposal ;  and  the  Duke  of  Portland  and  the  Duke 
of  Buccleuch  for  access  to  their  MSS.,  which  are 
not  yet  published.  I  am  also  under  obligation 
to  Mr.  J.  J.  Cartwright  of  the  Public  Record 
Office,  Secretary  of  the  Historical  Manuscripts 
Commission,  for  allowing  me  to  see  the  proofs  of 
the  MSS.  of  the  Marquis  of  Bath  at  Longleat, 
which  will  shortly  form  another  volume  of  the 
publications  of  the  Historical  Manuscripts  Com- 
mission. To  Miss  E.  Bagnall  I  am  indebted  for 
the  labour  and  time  given  to  the  preparation  of  the 
Index,  and  for  assistance  in  the  revision  of  the  proofs. 

E.  S.  R. 

July  1902. 


TABLE  OF  DATES 

{The  dates  in  this  volume  are  in  all  cases  given  in  the  New  Style.) 

1661,  5th  Dec.  .     .  Robert  Harley,  born  in  Bow  Street,  London. 

1682,  i8th  Mar.     .  Admitted  a  student  of  the  Inner  Temple  (but 
was  never  called  to  the  Bar). 

1685 Married  to  Elizabeth  Foley. 

1689 M.P.  for  Tregony. 

1690 M.P.  for  New  Radnor. 

1690 Commissioner  of  Public  Accounts. 

1 69 1 Death  of  his  first  wife. 

1 701 Act  of  Settlement. 

1 701,  loth  Feb.     .  Speaker  of  House  of  Commons. 

1 701,  7th  Sept.     .  Triple  Alliance  between  England,  Holland,  and 

the  Emperor,  against  France. 

1702,  8th  Mar.      .     Death  of  William  ill.  and  Accession  of  Anne. 

1703,  Nov.   .     .     .     De  Foe  released  from  prison  by  good  offices  of 

Harley,   and    connection    between    Harley 
and  De  Foe  commenced. 

1704,  1 6th  May     .    Appointed  Secretary  of  State  (retaining  office 

of  Speaker). 
1704,  Oct.    .     .     .     Harley  married  Sarah  Middleton 

1704,  13th  Aug.    .     Battle  of  Blenheim 

1705,  5th  April      .     Ceased  to  be  Speaker  on  dissolution  of  Parlia- 

ment. 

1706,  22nd  July     .    Articles  of  Union  between  England  and  Scotland 

signed  in  London. 

1707,  6th  Mar.      .     Act  of  Union  received  the  Royal  assent. 

1708,  nth  Feb.     .     Harley  resigned  Secretaryship  of  State, 

1 7 10,  8th  Aug..    .     Godolphin  dismissed  from  office  of  Lord  High 
Treasurer, 
ix 


X  TABLE   OF  DATES 

1 710,  9th  Aug.      .    Harley  appointed  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 

1 7 10,  4th  Oct.  .     .     Swift  introduced  to  Harley. 

1711,23rd  May    .     Harley    created    Earl    of    Oxford    and    Earl 

Mortimer. 
1711,29th  May    .    Appointed  Lord  High  Treasurer. 

171 1,  31st  Dec.    .     Dismissal  of  Marlborough  from  his  official  places. 

1713,  31st  Mar.    .    Peace  of  Utrecht. 

1714,  6th  June .    .    Schism  Bill  received  Royal  assent. 

17 14,  27th  July  .  Harley  is  dismissed  from  office  of  Lord  High 
Treasurer. 

1714,  1st  Aug.       .     Death  of  Anne  and  Accession  of  George  I. 

1715,  loth  June    .     Motion  for  impeachment   of  Harley  for  high 

treason. 

1 71 5,  1 2th  July      .     Harley  committed  to  the  Tower. 

1717,3rd  July  .  Released  from  the  Tower  on  failure  of  prosecu- 
tion. 

1 7 19,  28th  Feb.  .  Proceedings  begun  for  introduction  of  Peerage 
Bill. 

1724,  2 1st  May     .     Death  of  Harley  in  London. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

EARLY  LIFE 
1661-1700 

Harley's  Character  in  History — The  Harleys  of  Brampton  Bryan 
— Sir  Robert  Harley — Brilliana  Lady  Harley — Sir  Edward 
Harley — Robert  Harley's  Early  Life — First  Marriage — 
Member  for  Tregony — Member  for  New  Radnor — Work 
in  Parliament — Bill  for  Triennial  Parliaments — Opposes  a 
large  Standing  Army — National  Commercial  Expansion — 
Act  to  establish  a  National  Land  Bank — Harley's  Political 
Position — His  Character  in  Early  Manhood — Friendship 
with  Charles  Montague  ..... 


CHAPTER  II 

SPEAKER  AND  SECRETARY  OF  STATE 
170I-1705 

Harley  elected  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons — State  of 
Political  Parties — England  and  France — Harley  again 
elected  Speaker  in  Last  Parliament  of  William  in. — 
Accession  of  Anne — Declaration  of  War  with  France — 
Harley  Speaker  in  Parliament  of  1702 — Effect  of  the  War 
on  Domestic  Politics  —  Secretary  of  State  —  Occasional 
Conformity  Bill — Harley's  Management  of  the  House  of 
Commons — His  Political  Position — Harley  and  Godolphin       28 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  III 

HARLEY  AND  DE  FOE 

I 703-1 7 14 

PAGE 

De  Foe  in  Newgate — Released  by  Harley's  Intercession — The 
Relations  between  De  Foe  and  Harley — De  Foe's  Work — 
His  Mission  to  Scotland — His  Hope  of  Official  Employ- 
ment— His  Opinion  on  Harley's  Fall  in  1708 — Continues 
in  Godolphin's  Service  after  Harley's  Dismissal — His 
Return  to  Harley  in  1710 — Prosecuted  for  Libel  in  1713* 
— Intercession  of  Harley  —  The  Review  —  Harley  and 
Journalism       .......      47 

CHAPTER  IV 

SECRETARY  OF  STATE 
I 705- I 708 

Difference  of  Godolphin's  and  Harley's  Views — Godolphin's 
Alliance  with  the  Whigs — Result  on  Harley's  Position — 
The  Drawback  Bill — Increasing  Coolness  between  Harley 
and  Godolphin  —  The  Queen  and  Church  Patronage — 
Accentuation  of  Differences  between  Harley  and  Godolphin 
— Harley's  Resignation  of  Office — His  Definite  Alliance 
with  the  Tories  .  ,  .  .  .  '75 

CHAPTER  V 

IN  OPPOSITION 

1708-1710 

Growing  Arrogance  of  the  Whigs — Increasing  Strength  of  the 
Tories  and  Clergy — Harley  and  Mrs.  Masham — Revolt  of 
the  Queen  against  the  Whigs — Dismissal  of  Godolphin — 
Harley  appointed  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer — Harley's 
Political  Position        .  .  .  .  .  9* 


CONTENTS  xiii 


CHAPTER  VI 

PRIME  MINISTER 
I7IO-1714 

PAGE 

Harley's  Negotiations  with  the  Whig  Junto — The  Position  of 
Halifax — Harley  forms  a  Tory  Cabinet — Contrast  between 
Harley  and  Bolingbroke — Introduction  of  Swift  to  Harley 
— Erasmus  Lewis — Swift  andl  Harley — The  Relations  of 
Marlborough  and  Harley — The  Conclusion  of  Peace  the 
Object  of  Harley's  Policy — Guiscard's  Attempt  on  Harley's 
Life — Harley  created  Earl  of  Oxford  and  appointed  Lord 
Treasurer — Negotiations  with  France — Marlborough  op- 
poses Harley's  Policy — The  Government  defeated  in  the 
Lords  on  the  Address — Temporary  Alliance  of  High  Church 
Tories  and  Whigs — Bill  against  Occasional  Conformity 
carried — De  Foe's  Suggestion  to  defeat  it — The  Political 
Crisis  —  Harley's  Confidence  —  The  Creation  of  Peers  — 
1711  and  1832 — Dismissal  of  Marlborough — Triumph  of 
Harley — The  Restraining  Orders — Conclusion  of  Peace    .     loi 


CHAPTER  VII 

LAST  YEARS  OF  POWER 
171I-1714 

Harley's  Financial  Policy — The  South  Sea  Scheme — De  Foe's 
Influence  on  it — Estrangement  of  Harley  and  Bolingbroke 
on  Conclusion  of  Peace — Defeat  of  the  Government  on 
the  Commercial  Treaty  with  France — Differences  in  the 
Political  Views  of  Harley  and  Bolingbroke — Advisers  of 
the  Elector  doubt  Harley's  Good  Faith — The  Schism  Bill 
— The  Struggle  between  Harley  and  Bolingbroke — Fall  of 
Harley — Causes  of  his  Fall — Death  of  the  Queen    .  .     145 

CHAPTER  VIII 

IMPEACHMENT— IMPRISONMENT— RETIREMENT 
1714-1724 

Harley's  Position  on  Death  of  Queen  Anne — His  Hopes  on 
Accession  of  George   I. — Proceedings   against  the  Tory 


xiv  CONTENTS 


Leaders — Impeachment  of  Harley — Imprisonment  in  the 
Tower — Difference  between  the  Two  Houses — Acquittal 
— Harley  and  the  Jacobites — Opposition  to  the  Peerage 
Bill — Indifference  to  Financial  Distress  resulting  from 
South  Sea  Scheme — Harley  and  his  Friends — Prior  and 
Swift — Death — Summary  of  his  Character  and  Life  .     171 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  BOOK-COLLECTOR.     THE   FRIEND  OF  MEN  OF  LETTERS 

Harley's  Taste  for  collecting  Books  and  Manuscripts — A 
Fashion  of  the  Age — Harley  as  a  Scholar — Humphrey 
Wanley — Addition  of  the  D'Ewes  Collection  to  the  Library 
— Enlarged  by  Edward,  Earl  of  Oxford — Its  Dispersal — 
The  Manuscripts  purchased  for  the  Nation  —  Harley's 
Friendship  with  Men  of  Letters  :  Swift,  Prior,  Arbuthnot, 
Gay— The  Brothers'  Club— The  Scriblerus  Club— Politics 
and  Letters  in  the  Age  of  Anne         ....    208 

APPENDICES— 

I.  Swift's  Character  of  the  Earl  of  Oxford    .    233 

II.  Money  lent  to  the  Queen  by  the  Earl  of 

Oxford      ......    236 

III.  Note  on  the  Manuscripts   and  Letters  of 

AND  relating  TO   ROBERT  HARLEY,  EARL  OF 

Oxford       ......    238 

INDEX 241 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

I.  Robert  Harley,  Earl  of  Oxford  and 

Earl  Mortimer,  K.G.  .  .  Frontispiece 

From  a  picture  after  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller  in  the 
National  Portrait  Gallery.  The  Earl  of  Ox- 
ford is  depicted  in  the  robes  and  with  the 
insignia  of  a  Knight  of  the  Garter,  and  holds 
the  Lord  Treasurer's  White  Staff. 

II.  Ruins  of  Brampton  Castle,  Hereford- 
shire     .....     To  face  page    6 

III.  Brilliana  Lady  Harley.  .  .        „        „        8 

From  a  portrait  in  the  possession  of  R.  W.  D. 
Harley  at  Brampton  Bryan,  Herefordshire. 

IV.  Sir  Robert  Harley         .  .  .        „        „      26 

From  a  mezzotint  at  Brampton  Bryan. 

V.  Sidney,  Earl  of  Godolphin      .  •         „        »       44 

From  a  portrait  in  the  possession  of  the  Duke 
of  Leeds  at  Hornby  Castle,  Yorkshire. 
(Probably  by  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller.) 

VI.  Queen  Anne  with  her  Son,  the  Duke 

of  Gloucester    .     .    •    „    »   96 

From  a  portrait  by  Michael  Dahl  in  the 
National  Portrait  Gallery.  This  portrait  was 
painted  about  1695. 

VII.  Charles  Montague,  Earl  of  Halifax        „        „     102 

From  a  portrait  by  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller  in  the 
National  Portrait  Gallery. 

VIII.  Jonathan  Swift     .  .  .  •        »        ,,     108 

From  a  portrait  by  Charles  Jervas  in  the 
National  Portrait  Gallery. 

IX.  John    Churchill,    Duke    of    Marl- 
borough .  .  .  .         „        „     124 

From  a  portrait  by  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller  in  the 
National  Portrait  Gallery, 

X.  Henry  St.  John,  Viscount  BoLiNGBROKE        „        „     152 

From  a  portrait  by  Hyacinth  Rigaud  in  the 
National  Portrait  Gallery. 

XI.  Matthew  Prior     .  .  .  •        »        »     196 

From  a  picture  by  Thomas  Hudson  from  a 
portrait  by  Jonathan  Richardson  in  the 
National  Portrait  Gallery. 

XII.  Humphrey  Wanley,  F.R.S.,  F.S.A.       .         „        „     212 

From  a  mezzotint  from  a  portrait  by  Thomas  Hill. 

XIII.  John  Gay     .  .  .  .  .        „        „     218 

From  an  unfinished  sketch  by  Sir  Godfrey 
Kneller  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 

XV 


"Ce  sihde  a  engendre  le  notre.  Toutes  nos  origines 
et  tous  nos  caracteres  sont  en  lui :  I'age  moderne  est 
sorti  de  lui  et  date  de  lui." 

E.  AND  J.  DE  GONCOURT. 


ROBERT    HARLEY 

EARL    OF    OXFORD 

CHAPTER  I 

EARLY  LIFE 

1661-1700 

Harley's  Character  in  History  — The  Harleys  of 
Brampton  Bryan  — Sir  Robert  Harley  —  Brilliana  Lady 
Harley  —  Sir  Edward  Harley  —  Robert  Harley's  Early 
Life— First  Marriage— Member  for  Tregony— Member  for 
New  Radnor — Work  in  Parliament— Bill  for  Triennial 
Parliaments— Opposes  a  large  Standing  Army— National 
Commercial  Expansion— Act  to  establish  a  National  Land 
Bank— Harley's  Political  Position  — His  Character  in 
Early  Manhood— Friendship  with  Charles  Montague. 

**We  fight  with  the  poison  of  the  tongue,  with 
words  that  speak  like  the  piercing  of  a  sword, 
with  the  gall  of  envie,  the  venom  of  slander,  the 
foam  of  malice."  Such  were  the  words  in  which 
De  Foe,  the  acutest  observer  of  the  men  and 
manners  of  his  age,  described  the  characteristics 
of  the  political  life  in  which  Robert  Harley,  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  took  so  conspicuous  a  part. 
It  need  not  therefore  surprise  us  that  it  has  been 
difficult  to  form  a  sure  opinion  of  his  political 
actions,  though  at  the  same  time  his  career  has  not 


2  ROBERT  HARLEY 

always  been  considered  either  with  sufficient  care 
or  without  prejudice^,  Who  does  not  remember 
Macaulay's  brilliant  and  misleading  description  of 
himi^'^Kbt.''feV'eri'  idamning  with  faint  praise,  the 
historian  describes  him  as  one  whose  intellect 
"was  small  and  slow,"  and  who  was  eventually 
found  by  his  contemporaries  to  be  **  really  a  dull 
and  puzzle-headed  man."^  Bolingbroke,  twelve 
years  after  Harley  had  been  in  his  grave,  assailed 
his  memory  with  virulence,  forgetful  that  in  former 
years  he  had  spoken  of  him  with  respect  and 
admiration,  and  sometimes  even  with  affection.^ 
The  truth  is  that  Harley 's  character  has  too  fre- 
quently been  drawn  from  the  fragmentary  allusions 
of  contemporary  writers,  often  time-servers,  or 
political  enemies  who  varied  their  praise  or  blame 
according  to  the  exigencies  of  the  moment.  Such 
sources  of  information  in  such  an  age  as  that  of 
Anne  require  even  more  careful  investigation  than 
at  any  period  of  our  history.  "  If  an  Englishman," 
wrote  Addison  with  remarkable  detachment  of 
mind,  **  considers  the  great  ferment  into  which 
our  political  world  is  thrown  at  present,  and  how 
intensely  it  is  heated  in  all   its  parts,  he  cannot 


^  A  more  judicial  view  of  Harley  is  taken  in  a  valuable  paper, 
"  The  Development  of  Political  Parties  during  the  Reign  of  Queen 
Anne,"  by  Walter  Frewen  Lord,  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Historical 
Society^  vol.  xiv.,  new  series. 

^  "  Adieu,  dear  master ;  no  man  loves  you  more  entirely  than 
Harry."— St.  John  to  Harley,  iSth  May  1705,  Harley  Papers^  ii.  i8a 


POLITICAL   STATE   OF  ENGLAND     3 

suppose  it  will  cool  again  in  less  than  three 
hundred  years.  In  such  a  tract  of  time  it  is  pos- 
sible that  the  heats  of  the  present  age  may  be 
extinguished,  and  our  several  classes  of  great  men 
represented  under  their  proper  characters."  Addi- 
son perceived  that  the  condition  of  England  at 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  was 
remarkable  and  exceptional :  the  nation  was  still 
acutely  sensitive  after  repeated  and  extraordinary 
constitutional  crises,  after  the  bitter  conflicts  of  the 
preceding  half-century  between  Churchmen  and 
Nonconformists.  New  conditions — political,  com- 
mercial, and  social — were  coming  into  existence, 
of  which  the  men  who  were  taking  part  in  the 
national  evolution  were  wholly  inappreciative.  By 
a  study  of  Harley's  career,  the  centre  as  it  was  of 
the  political  life  of  his  age,  by  discarding  many 
personal  and  encumbering  details,  we  are  better 
able  to  estimate  the  real  forces  which  were  at 
work  beneath  a  mass  of  intrigue  and  invective,  of 
suspicion  and  fear. 

If  Harley's  capacity  has  been  unduly  depreci- 
ated by  some  historians,  it  would,  on  the  other 
hand,  be  wrong  to  rank  him  as  a  statesman  either 
of  large  intellect  or  of  conspicuous  strength  of 
character.  He  was  not  a  Chatham,  a  Pitt,  or  a 
Fox ;  he  was  not  even  a  Walpole :  but  there  is 
this  solid  fact,  which  is  worth  more  than  praise  or 
depreciation,  that   when   many   able  and  brilliant 


4  ROBERT  HARLEY 

persons  were  engaged  in  public  life,  he  succeeded 
by  his  individual  capacity  in  attaining  to  the 
highest  place,  whilst  for  years  before  he  became 
Prime  Minister  he  was  regarded  with  respect  and 
often  with  admiration  by  those  who  were  the  best 
able  to  appreciate  political  merit.  A  tiresome 
manner,  an  almost  wearisome  knowledge  of  parlia- 
mentary forms  and  history,  involved  speech,  all 
tending,  it  has  been  said,  to  hide  the  deficiencies 
of  his  mind  and  to  impose  upon  his  hearers,  will 
not  permit  a  politician  without  remarkable  capacity 
to  reach  the  place  which  Harley  attained. 

Harley's  life  as  a  whole,  especially  his  birth,  his 
family,  and  his  character,  have  not  been  sufficently 
considered ;  isolated  facts  have  been  dwelt  on  so  as 
to  give  them  undue  importance,  and  his  career  has 
been  generally  surveyed  from  the  point  of  view  of 
other  times,  detached  from  its  political  atmosphere. 
His  actions  have  been  tested  by  a  different  standard 
from  that  which  prevailed  in  his  own  time,  when 
duplicity  was  regarded  as  statesmanship,  and  when 
De  Foe  could  assert  as  necessary  what  he  calls 
"that  old  maxim  of  Politicks"  that  "men  might 
be  made  use  of  when  they  can  serve  us,  without 
any  real  design  to  serve  them " ;  in  other  words, 
that  deception  was  admirable.  Statements  cannot 
be  too  carefully  received  if  made  when  truth  is  at 
a  discount,  and  when  exaggerated  eulogy  is  con- 
sidered as  little  more  than  common  courtesy.     We 


A  PARLIAMENTARY  STATESMAN     5 

sometimes  forget  that  the  fine  lines  which  have 
impressed  succeeding  generations  with  Pope's  high 
estimate  of  Harley,  were  prefixed  to  an  edition  of 
the  works  of  Parnell,  and  were  a  dedication  by 
which  Pope  hoped  to  please  a  nobleman  whose 
recommendation,  though  his  political  influence  had 
departed,  was  still  invaluable  to  an  author. 

But  the  time  has  come  when  some  attempt  may 
be  made  to  describe  without  prejudice  the  most 
noticeable  features  in  the  career  of  a  statesman 
who  played  a  great  part  in  his  day,  and  who  is  an 
interesting  study ;  for  he  is  the  most  modern  of  the 
politicians  of  the  age  of  Anne,  an  age  which  in 
politics,  letters,  and  commerce  was  the  beginning 
of  our  own.  Though  he  had  neither  the  ability 
of  some  of  his  contemporaries,  nor  the  resolute 
will  of  others,  not  one  of  them  had  anything  like 
the  same  capacity  as  a  parliamentary  leader,  or  the 
same  sensitive  perception  of  public  opinion.  Harley 
is  the  typical  parliamentary  statesman  born  an  age 
too  soon,  living  in  years  which  formed  part  of 
a  period  of  transition,  both  social  and  political, 
and  which  was  also  marked  by  features  of  the 
most  remarkable  and  serious  character — a  great 
European  war,  and  some  uncertainty  as  to  the 
succession  to  the  throne  of  England. 

To  his  ancestors  and  his  family,  Robert  Harley 
owed  some  of  his  success,  and  their  influence  was 
lifelong.     Then,  as  now,  important  family  connec- 


6  ROBERT   HARLEY 

tions  made  the  first  steps  of  a  political  career  more 
easy  for  a  beginner, — they  could  open  the  way  to 
fortune  though  they  could  not  assure  it, — and  in 
Harley's  case,  the  effects  of  early  training  and 
association  were  clearly  apparent  at  a  late  stage  of 
public  life. 

Robert  Harley  came  of  an  old  Herefordshire 
family.  Originally  the  Harleys  lived  in  Shrop- 
shire, but  in  the  reign  of  Henry  iii.  they  became 
— by  the  marriage  of  Robert  de  Harley  with 
Margaret  de  Brampton  —  the  possessors  of 
Brampton  Castle^  and  with  it  of  a  considerable 
estate  at  Brampton  Bryan,  in  that  agreeable 
broken  country  which  lies  on  the  Welsh  border, 
between  the  Clun  Hills  and  the  larger  valleys, 
and  spreading  pastures,  which  extend  from 
Leominster  to  the  Severn.  Somewhat  remote, 
it  has  many  pleasant  characteristics :  hills  and 
hanging  woods,  small  rivers,  and  villages  of 
thatched  cottages  with  picturesque  black  and 
white  walls,  numerous  apple  orchards,  and  grey 
church  towers,  give  the  landscape  pleasing  variety. 
In  mediaeval  times  the  castle  and  the  church 
stood  side  by  side,  almost  surrounded  by  the 
village ;  a  park  studded  with  well  -  grown  oaks 
stretched — as  it  does  to-day — up  the  hillside  to 
the  west,  and  pastures  sloped  from  the  castle 
walls  to  the  willows  by  the  Teme.     In  1644  both 

^  The  Castles  of  Herefordshire,    By  the  Rev.  C.  J.  Robinson,  p.  8. 


SIR  ROBERT   HARLEY  7 

castle  and  church  were  reduced  to  ruins  by  the 
Royalists  under  Sir  Michael  Woodhouse,  but  in 
1661-62  Sir  Edward  Harley  rebuilt  the  church, 
and  erected  the  existing  house  close  to  the  castle, 
which,  unroofed  and  ivy-clad,  to-day  rises  pictur- 
esque and  peaceful  from  the  lawn. 

Both  Robert  Harley 's  father  and  grandfather 
were  public  -  spirited  and  high  -  minded  men,  both 
were  members  of  Parliament  possessing  an  influence 
which  extended  beyond  the  bounds  of  their  county. 
His  grandfather,  Sir  Robert,^  was  a  man  of  ability 
and  learning,  numbering  among  his  friends  Dr. 
Donne,  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury,  and  George 
Herbert;  one  of  the  Puritanical  left  wing  of  the 
Church  of  England,  he  was  intolerant  in  his 
religious  opinions,  and  was  an  influential  member 
of  the  Parliamentary  party  until  his  death. 

Sir  Robert  Harley  showed  his  zeal  for  Puri- 
tanism not  only  as  a  stout  soldier,  but  as  a  narrow- 
minded  iconoclast.  Chairman  of  the  Commons 
Committee  which  was  appointed  in  1644  with 
instructions  to  destroy  superstitious  and  idolatrous 
relics,  from  April  of  that  year  to  the  follow- 
ing August  he  was  active  in  the  destruction 
of  monuments,  stained  glass,  and  everything  in 
the  nature  of  artistic  or  architectural  adornment 
at  Westminster  Abbey,  St.  Margaret's  Church, 
and    the    chapels    at    Whitehall    and    Hampton 

1 1579-1656. 


8  ROBERT  HARLEY 

Court ;   and   Canterbury  [Cathedral   suffered   from 
his  misguided  zeal.^ 

Thrice  married,  his  last  wife  was  Brilliana 
Conway,  one  who  in  those  stirring  times  made 
her  name  famous — she  was  courageous,  sagacious, 
and  lovable.  Her  letters,  long  preserved  at 
Eywood,2  were  published  by  the  Camden  Society 
in  1853,  and  give  posterity  an  insight  into  her 
character,  and,  with  those  which  have  remained 
among  the  archives  at  Welbeck,  present  a  complete 
picture  of  a  most  admirable  woman.  She  was  bom 
in  1600  and  married  in  1623.  As  in  the  instance  of 
her  memorable  contemporary,  Mary,  Lady  Verney, 
the  trials  of  the  times  prematurely  ended  her  life. 
Left  in  1643  |in  charge  of  her  husband's  house, 
and  entrusted  with  the  management  of  his  busi- 
ness. Lady  Harley  took  up  her  task  cheerfully 
and  bravely.  **  Since  you  think  Brampton  a  safe 
place  for  me,"  she  wrote  to  him  on  the  15th  of 
July,  "  I  will  think  so  too,  and  should  not  for 
anything  do  that  which  would  make  the  world 
believe  our  hope  did  begin  to  fail  in  our  God. 
But  be  pleased  to  send  me  directions  what  I 
should   do   if  there   should    be   any   stir."^     And 

^  The  following  is  one  among  many  similar  entries  :  "  1645. 
May  13.  Receipt  by  Thomas  Stevens  of  26s.  from  Sir  Robert 
Harley  for  defacing  pictures  on  the  N.  side  of  the  Abbey." — Harley 
Papers^  i.  133. 

*  Now  in  the  possession  of  R.  W.  D.  Harley,  Esq.,  of  Brampton 
Bryan. 

*  Harley  Papers^  i.  91. 


HklMIA.NA    I.ADY    HAKJ,KV 

1-rovi  afoi-liait  in  //u- /i>ssrssio;t  of  K.  1 1'.  />.  Harh-y,  I'.sq.,  at  Ih-aiii/'lon  Kryaii,  Hcyefordshu'e 


SIR  EDWARD   HARLEY  9 

stir  there  was,  for  in  the  autumn  Brampton  was 
besieged  by  a  body  of  the  Royalist  party  under 
Sir  William  Vavasour.  It  was  an  age  of  heroines, 
and  Brilliana  Lady  Harley  showed  no  less  courage 
at  Brampton  Bryan  than  did  the  more  famous 
Lady  Derby  at  Lathom  House,  and  the  beautiful 
Lady  Blanche  Arundel  at  Wardour  Castle.  For 
six  weeks  she  defended  her  home  with  resolu- 
tion and  spirit.  In  October  she  wrote  to  her 
husband:  *'A11  the  children  are  well,  but  I  have 
taken  an  exceeding  great  cold,  which  much  troubles 
me.  I  beseech  the  Lord  to  preserve  you  and  to 
give  you  a  comfortable  meeting  with  your  most 
affectionate  wife."  But  this  was  not  to  be,  for  in 
the  same  month  Lady  Harley  died,  worn  out  by 
the  fatigues  and  anxieties  of  the  preceding  weeks. 

Sir  Edward  Harley,^  who  was  made  a  Knight 
of  the  Bath  in  1667,  was  as  public-spirited  as  his 
father,  but  more  moderate  and  more  statesmanlike 
in  opinion.  Though  he  fought  in  the  Parliamentary 
armies  with  great  gallantry,  he  was  opposed  to  a 
strong  anti- Monarchical  policy,  and,  after  the  death 
of  the  King,  to  the  assumption  by  Cromwell  of 
almost  autocratic  power ;  and,  like  others  who  had 
served  the  cause  of  Parliament  well,  he  lost  in 
time  the  confidence  of  the  Protector.  It  was 
natural,  therefore,  that  he  should  be  in  favour  of 
the  return  of  Charles  11. ;  but  though  a  member  of 

1 1 624-1 700. 


10  ROBERT   HARLEY 

Parliament  during  the  reign  of  that  King  and  of 
James  ii.,  he  held  himself  aloof  from  party  struggles. 
He  was  heartily  an  adherent  of  William  of  Orange, 
and  after  the  Revolution  was  always  ready  in 
Parliament  to  support  all  reasonable  measures. 

He  died  in  1700  at  his  Herefordshire  home. 
**  He  had,"  wrote  his  second  son,  Auditor  Harley, 
"all  the  accomplishments  of  a  gentleman.  His 
features  were  very  exact,  and  he  had  great  quick- 
ness in  his  eyes,  which  commanded  respect.  His 
temper  was  naturally  very  passionate,  though 
mixed  with  the  greatest  tenderness  and  humanity. 
His  passion  he  kept  under  strict  restraint,  and  had 
a  manner  totally  subdued,  but  his  generosity  and 
tender  compassion  to  all  objects  of  charity  con- 
tinued to  the  last." 

From  these  staunch  upholders  of  popular  rights 
and  religious  freedom — a  strange  origin  for  the 
future  Tory  Prime  Minister  —  Robert  Harley 
sprang.  He  was  Sir  Edward  s  eldest  son  by  his 
second  marriage,  his  mother  being  Abigail  Stephens, 
daughter  of  Nathaniel  Stephens  of  Essington  in 
Gloucestershire,  and  he  was  born  in  1661.  When 
quite  young  he  left  his  pleasant  home,  for  in 
August  1 67 1  he  went  to  the  school  of  a  Mr.  Birch 
at  Shilton  in  Oxfordshire,  where  among  his  school- 
fellows was  his  future  colleague  Harcourt.  On  the 
28th  of  that  month  he  sent  his  first  letter  home. 
Robert  Harley,  imbued  with  ancestral  Puritanism, 


SCHOOL  LIFE  11 

wrote — probably  under  the  eye  of  his  master — in 
a  more  formal  style  than  the  schoolboy  of  to-day. 

"1 67 1,  August  28th,  Shilton.  Please  to  accept 
my  most  humble  duty  to  you  and  my  Lady  Mother 
in  this  line  from  a  learner.  I  hope  through  the 
grace  of  God,  with  your  blessings  and  prayers, 
which  I  earnestly  beg,  my  endeavours  may  in  time 
send  you  fairer  fruits  than  these  first  beginnings."  ^ 

It  has  been  sometimes  supposed  that  Harley 
was  educated  at  Westminster  School,  but  of  this 
there  is  no  evidence.  In  1677  he  was  still  at 
Shilton,  for  he  writes  in  that  year  particulars  of  an 
illness  from  which  he  had  been  suffering  there  ;  and 
in  the  next  spring  there  is  a  letter  from  his  father 
to  him  at  the  same  place.  In  June  1678,  Sir 
Edward,  writing  to  Lady  Harley  from  Westminster, 
where  he  was  staying,  remarks  at  the  end  of  his 
letter,  **  Bull  and  Robin  are  well,"  showing  that 
young  Harley  was  in  London  with  him,  but  not, 
it  would  seem,  at  Westminster  School.  In  the 
following  July  he  was  at  Shilton,  and  his  father 
not  only  writes  to  him  there,  but  adds,  in  the 
manner  of  a  parent  to  a  son  at  school  or  college, 
"Study  the  Greek  lexicon  and  Erasmus's  adages." 
About  this  time  Sir  Edward  seems  to  have  thought 
of  sending  his  son  to  Oxford,  for  in  October  he 
writes,  ''Acquaint  Mr.  Birch  that  it  will  not  now 

1  Harley  Papers^  i.  324.    Endorsed  "  First  letter." 


12  ROBERT   HARLEY 

be  needful  to  provide  you  a  lodging  at  Oxford.  I 
have  altered  my  thoughts  thereon."  ^  Harley  there- 
fore must  have  remained  at  Shilton  for  the  whole 
period  of  his  early  youth.  But  in  1680  the  time 
had  come  for  him  to  go  to  some  more  advanced 
place  of  education,  and  one  was  selected  in  London. 
We  are  told  that  too  great  stress  is  set  in  the 
present  day  on  physical  exercises,  but  when  Sir 
Edward  Harley  recommends  M.  Foubert's  house 
to  his  wife,  he  dwells  as  much  on  the  training  of 
his  son's  body  as  of  his  mind — 

"(16)80,  July  6th.  Monsieur  Foubert,  who  for 
his  religion  was  driven  out  of  France,  has  set  up 
an  Academy  near  the  Hay  market  for  riding,  fencing, 
dancing,  handling  arms,  and  mathematics.  He  is 
greatly  commended,  and  has  divers  persons  of 
quality.  I  was  with  him  and  like  him  very  well, 
so  that  if  you  dislike  not  I  would  have  Robin 
spend  some  time  there."  ^ 

At  this  school,  if  such  it  can  be  called,  Robert 
Harley  remained  until  December  1682. 

For  the  next  few  years  little  can  now  be  dis- 
covered of  his  life.  In  1684  he  was  living  in 
London,  and  in  letters  from  his  parents  he  is  asked 
to  undertake  various  small  pieces  of  business  for 
them  :  *'  I  desire  some  good  wine,"  writes  his  father. 
**  You  know  what  I  like — neither  hot,  sharp,  nor 

*  Harley  Papers^  i.  361.  *  Harley  Papers^  i.  366. 


MARRIAGE  13 

sweet ;  some  Canary  requisite  for  friends.  If  you 
could  find  a  right  sort  of  white  wine,  neither  *  eager 
nor  stummed,'  it  would  do  well." 

In  May  1685,  Harley  married  Elizabeth  Foley, 
the  daughter  of  a  Tory  magnate,  Thomas  Foley  of 
Whitley  Court,  Worcestershire.  Always  delicate, 
she  was  a  victim  in  1691  of  that  scourge  of  the  age, 
smallpox.  But  in  1694  he  married  again,^  form- 
ing a  very  different  alliance,  for  his  second  wife  was 
Sarah  Middleton,  daughter  of  Simon  Middleton, 
a  merchant  of  London.  In  a  letter  to  his  father 
in  the  very  year  of  his  first  marriage,  Harley 
remarked  that  the  doctor  had  prescribed  his  wife 
a  course  of  physic  for  six  weeks,  and  then  he 
quaintly  added,  *'  I  find  myself  well,  but  weak, 
especially  my  eyes.  Many  advise  the  cutting  off  of 
my  hair,  but  I  hope  it  will  wear  off  without  that."  ^ 

Harley,  during  the  next  four  years,  lived 
sometimes  in  London,  sometimes  in  Herefordshire, 
taking,  as  became  his  father's  son,  an  important 
share  in  local  affairs,  and  qualifying  himself  for  a 
wider  field  of  activity  by  intercourse  with  politicians 
in  town.  At  length,  in  1689,  his  parliamentary 
career  began  by  his  election  in  the  first  Parliament 
of  William  and  Mary  for  the  borough  of  Tregony, 
one  of  those  numerous  little  Cornish  constituencies 
which  were  usually  filled  by  court  placemen. 

^  Harley  Papers^  i.  552,  557.    See  post^  p.  199. 
*  Harley  Papers^  i.  389. 


14  ROBERT   HARLEY 

The  new  member  was  in  full  sympathy  with  the 
principles  of  the  Revolution ;  and  if  it  be  allowable 
to  call  him  a  party  man  at  all,  at  that  time  he 
must  be  regarded  as  a  Whig.  But  the  funda- 
mental differences  which  were  presently  to  divide 
the  country  and  Parliament  had  not  yet  arisen,  and 
it  was  as  a  friend  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  and 
as  an  adherent  of  the  new  dynasty,  that  Harley 
entered  Parliament.  He  did  not,  however,  long 
remain  a  member  for  the  little  Cornish  borough 
with  its  hundred  and  fifty  obedient  electors,  for 
when  in  the  following  year  the  general  election 
occurred,  he  contested  the  borough  of  New  Radnor. 
At  first  unsuccessful,  he  was  ultimately,  after  the 
hearing  of  a  petition  in  November,  given  the 
seat  by  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

During  the  next  ten  years  Harley 's  political 
influence  steadily  increased  ;  and  he  soon  gained  a 
great  parliamentary  reputation,  less  by  the  display 
of  striking  powers  than  by  sound  sense,  and  by  a 
close  attention  to,  and  unusual  study  of,  the  forms 
and  the  business  of  the  House  of  Commons.  **  I 
have  often  heard  it  said,  though  he  had  but  ;^500  a 
year,  he  spent  half  of  it  on  clerks  to  copy  out  what 
papers  were  given  into  the  House  of  Commons 
concerning  treaties,  etc.,  so  that  Mr.  Blathwaite 
and  others  of  the  King's  people  were  almost  afraid 
to  speak  before  him."^ 

^  Wentworih  Papers^  edited  by  Cartwright,  p.  134. 


SOCIABILITY  15 

In  1690,  Harley  became  a  Commissioner  for 
Public  Accounts,  in  the  following  year  he  **was 
put  into  the  chair  of  the  Committee  for  examining 
the  estimates  of  the  Fleet."  A  single  paragraph 
from  a  letter  of  Edward  Harley  to  his  father  shows 
very  clearly  the  estimation  in  which  his  brother 
Robert  was  held  at  this  time.  "  The  favour  and 
acceptance  that  the  goodness  of  God  has  given  my 
brother  in  the  House  of  Commons  is  extraordinary 
and  much  taken  notice  of."^ 

At  the  height  of  his  power  Harley  was  essentially 
a  man  of  social  and  kindly  instincts  ;  nothing  pleased 
him  better  than  to  receive  Swift  or  Prior  without 
ceremony,  and  to  drink  a  bottle  of  claret  with  them. 
The  same  characteristic  is  found  in  his  life  at  this 
time,  perhaps  touched  with  the  unrestrainedness  of 
youth,  which  on  one  occasion  led  to  a  parental 
remonstrance,  quaint  to  modern  ideas  when  we  re- 
member that  Harley  was  already  a  capable  member 
of  Parliament.  To  it  this  letter  is  an  answer ;  its 
language  may  seem  too  scriptural,  but  it  was  com- 
posed in  a  style  which  would  be  pleasing  to  Sir 
Edward  Harley,  who  had  for  years  been  one  of  the 
Parliamentary  and  Nonconformist  party.  It  reveals 
a  glimpse  of  Harley's  personal  life  at  this  time. 

"The  paper  received  last  night  could  not  but 
occasion  great  thoughts  of  heart,  though  in  the  great 

^  Harley  Papers^  i.  487. 


16  ROBERT  HARLEY 

commotion  and  distraction  by  the  multiplicity  of  busi- 
ness hath  been  my  lot  this  day,  may  be  less  fit  so  fully 
to  express  myself  as  this  great  occasion  requires,  yet 
deem  it  absolutely  due  to  the  duty  owing  a  father 
endeared  by  innumerable  tokens  of  affection,  and  to 
what  is  dearest  to  a  man  and  a  Christian,  to  give  the 
soonest  answer  which,  God  willing,  shall  be  enlarged. 
**  In  the  first  place,  I  desire  to  look  up  to  Heaven, 
without  the  permission  of  which  neither  a  hair  falls 
to  the  ground  nor  a  cubit  taken  from  our  reputation, 
and  I  doe  most   humbly  and   syncerely  bend  my 
knees  to  the  Father  of  mercies,  imploring  his  mercie 
and  grace,  that  this  rebuke  may  bring  forth  in  my 
soul  a  joyful   harvest   of  humble,    strict  walking, 
with  al  circumspect  holyness,  in  faith  and  obedience. 
As  to  the  matter  charged,  I  beg  leave  to  say  with 
syncerity  and  singleness  of  heart,   I  trust  I  have 
that  in  me  that  I  dare  confess  my  faults,  rather  by 
much  than  add  to  them  by  the  covering  of  a  lye.     I 
can  most  solemly  declare  I  have  not  been  in  any 
public-house — except  just  the  time  of  dining — since 
I  came  out  of  the  country.     I  have  so  absolutely 
withdrawn  myself  from  al  acquaintance,  that  I  have 
spent  al  the  time  hath  not  been  taken  up  in  my 
public  and  privat  affairs  with  one  person  only  at  the 
Temple,  whom  I    have — for  divers  reasons — con- 
stantly attended  in  the  evening. 

**  It  is  possible   from   many  shots   of  the  like 
nature,  I  could  easily  guess  the  bow  whence  this 


TRIENNIAL  BILL  17 

poysoned  arrow  was  shot ;  but  I  desire  to  look 
higher,  that  it  may  be  admonition  to  more  heavenly 
mindedness  and  humility,  for  which  I  humbly  beg 
the  concurrence  of  your  prayers,  and  that  you  wil 
please  to  permit  me  to  interpret  this  holy  jelosie  of 
yours  over  me  an  additional  mark  of  your  most 
tender  affection  to  him  who  with  al  humility  and 
obedience  beseeches  your  blessing."^ 

Two  measures  during  the  last  years  of  the 
seventeenth  century  chiefly  engrossed  the  attention 
of  Parliament  and  the  country — the  Triennial  Bill,^ 
as  it  was  popularly  called,  and  the  reduction  of  the 
standing  army.  Each  was  distasteful  to  the  King, 
and  each,  as  was  to  be  expected,  was  supported  by 
Harley.  Triennial  Parliaments  had  been  brought 
into  existence  by  the  Long  Parliament  in  1641,  and 
they  had  been  destroyed  by  the  Tories  after  the 
Restoration.  All  the  influences  arising  from  family, 
early  training,  and  temperament,  caused  Harley  to 
be  in  favour  of  a  measure  which  might  be  regarded 
as  completing  the  constitutional  changes  produced 
by  the  Great  Rebellion. 

The  first  Bill  which  was  introduced  in  1693 
passed  both  Houses,  and  after  some  hesitation  was 
vetoed  by  the  King.     It  had  a  curious  parliament- 

^  Harley  Papers^  i.  467. 

2  More  strictly — a  Bill  for  the  more  frequent  meeting  and  calling 
of  Parliament. 

2 


18  ROBERT  HARLEY 

ary  history.  Early  in  the  following  session,  in 
November,  it  was  again  introduced,  and  was  then 
thrown  out  by  the  Commons  ;  ^  but  in  December  a 
new  Bill  was  passed  by  the  Lords  and  rejected  by 
the  Commons.^  It  was  supported  effectively  by 
Harley :  "In  the  great  debate  of  yesterday  about 
the  triennial  parliaments,  the  Lord  was  pleased  to 
enable  your  brother  to  speak  so  that  some  in  the 
House  called  upon  me  to  bless  God  that  vouchsafed 
to  give  me  a  son  so  to  speak,  and  also  the  mercy 
to  me  to  hear  him."' 

The  Harleys  in  each  generation  were  an 
affectionate  and  united  family,  and  it  is  in  these 
touching  words  that  Sir  Edward  writes  of  his  son's 
parliamentary  merits. 

The  session  was  long  and  did  not  end  until  the 
25th  of  April  1694,  but  the  first  business  of  the  House 
of  Commons  when  Parliament  again  met  in  Novem- 
ber was  to  order  Harley  to  prepare  and  bring  in  yet 
another  Bill.  It  was  suggested  that  the  assent  to 
the  measure  by  the  King  was  the  price  of  supply. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  it  passed  through  all  its  stages 
without  opposition,  and  received  the  royal  assent.* 

Macaulay  has  asserted  that  Harley  liked  to 
thwart  the  King,  and  that  in  order  to  do  so  he  was 
ready  to  act  with  either  of  the  two  parties  in  the 


1  Pari.  Hist,  v.  788.  «  Pari  Hist,  v.  822,  826. 

«  Harley  Papers,  i.  548.    Pari,  Hist,  v.  759. 
*  Pari  Hist,  v.  860,  861. 


OPPOSITION  TO  STANDING  ARMY     19 

State.  But  in  opposing  William  and  his  Whig 
Ministry  in  1697  after  the  Peace  of  Ryswyck  in 
regard  to  a  standing  army,  Harley  acted  with 
perfect  consistency,  and  the  position  which  he 
maintained  was  moderate  and  statesmanlike.  For 
once,  at  any  rate,  the  middle  course  so  dear  to  him 
was  the  right  course  ;  whether  he  looked  on  a  stand- 
ing army  as  a  menace  to  civil  liberty,  or  whether 
— and  this  seems  the  chief  reason  for  his  action — he 
objected  to  it  in  the  interests  of  national  economy, 
does  not  much  matter.  He  perceived  the  danger 
of  extreme  action  whether  by  the  Court  or  its 
opponents.  "The  prospect  is  very  cloudy,"  he 
writes  to  his  father  on  23rd  November  1697, 
**  every  one  is  full  of  the  common  topic — a  standing 
army — and  it  is  talked  with  heat  on  both  sides." 
A  week  later  he  says,  '*  The  argument  against  a 
standing  army  has  raised  a  great  heat  in  the  town. 
There  is  very  little  prospect  of  moderate  councils." 
And  on  the  30th  he  observes,  **  The  heat  against 
an  army  rather  increases  than  otherwise,  so  that 
it  is  thought  necessary  to  disband  the  four  French 
[Dutch?]  regiments  which  were  to  be  kept."^ 
It  was  an  occasion  when  a  politician  always 
favourable  to  moderate  counsels,  economical  in  his 
financial  views,  and  imbued  with  much  common 
sense,  could  make  his  influence  felt.  The  King, 
who  as  a  foreigner  could  not  possibly  understand  the 

^  Harley  Papers^  i.  593. 


20  ROBERT   HARLEY 

state  of  English  feeling,  regarded  the  question  from 
a  purely  military  point  of  view,  one  not  confined 
to  the  defence  of  England,  but  embracing  possible 
continental  campaigns.  Harley,  while  in  touch 
with  the  feeling  of  the  country  and  of  Parliament, 
was  also  perceptive  of  the  reasonableness  to  some 
extent  of  the  King's  motives,  and  yet  sympathised 
with  those  who  urged  the  danger  of  a  standing  army 
on  historical  and  theoretical  grounds.  The  details 
of  the  parliamentary  measures  of  1697  ^^^  1^9^ 
have  long  since  ceased  to  be  of  practical  importance, 
but  in  the  contest  between  the  King  and  his  Parlia- 
ment we  perceive  the  ground-swell  of  the  storms  of 
the  Rebellion  and  of  the  Commonwealth,  the  dread 
of  absolutism  and  of  militarism  —  for  men  still 
remembered  both  the  pretensions  of  Charles  i.  and 
the  rule  of  the  Major-Generals — struggling  with 
the  needs  of  a  changing  state  of  society,  in  which 
a  standing  army  as  much  as  parliamentary  parties 
was  becoming  a  necessary  feature  of  the  English 
polity.  We  perceive,  too,  the  remarkable  influence 
of  Harley,  at  once  commanding  and  moderating. 
Not  objecting  to  a  standing  army  on  principle,  he 
moved  in  December  1697  that  the  number  of  troops 
should  be  the  same  as  in  1680.  The  indefiniteness 
of  this  arrangement  produced  fresh  difficulties,  and  it 
was  not  until  the  following  January,  after  an  attempt 
had  been  made  by  the  King's  friends  to  rescind 
Harley's  resolution,  that  by  arrangement  between 


HARLEY'S  PARLIAMENTARY  TACT    21 

Ministers  and  the  House  of  Commons  the  number 
was  fixed  at  10,000  men.  To  support  this  army 
Montague  desired  a  vote  for  ;^400,ooo,  but  Harley 
would  have  limited  it  to  ;^300,ooo.  The  House, 
with  that  sense  of  compromise  so  strongly  marked 
in  English  assemblies,  split  the  difference. 

But  in  December  1698  the  parliamentary  con- 
test was  bitterly  renewed,  for  the  new  Parliament 
was  more  hostile  to  a  standing  army  than  that 
which  had  been  lately  dissolved.  The  Kings 
Ministers,  unwilling  to  face  the  storm,  left  the 
initiative  to  the  House,  and  under  the  tactful 
leadership  of  Harley  the  army  was  fixed  at  7000 
natural  born  Englishmen  (January  1699).  Had 
Parliament  followed  its  own  inclination,  the  army 
would  have  been  entirely  disbanded ;  it  was 
Harley  s  parliamentary  management  that  built  the 
golden  bridge  over  which  the  King  could — how- 
ever unwillingly — pass,  and  who  not  only  resolved 
a  difficult  and  a  dangerous  crisis,  but  established 
a  parliamentary  and  a  constitutional  basis  for  the 
system  of  a  standing  army.  *'My  brother's  con- 
duct in  this  affair,"  wrote  Edward  Harley  to  his 
father,  *'is  very  much  commended";  and  a  little 
later,  *'The  difficulties  concerning  disbanding  the 
army  seem  to  be  over.  It  is  no  small  cause  of 
thankfulness  that  a  dear  relation  is  so  eminently 
useful  and  has  his  health  so  well."^ 

^  Harley  Paper s^  i.  600,  601. 


22  ROBERT  HARLEY 

At  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  and  the  be- 
ginning of  the  eighteenth  centuries  the  commercial 
expansion  of  England  was  beginning.  It  was  an 
immense  national  impulse  striving  for  outlets ; 
among  other  forces,  internal  peace,  a  growing 
population,  and  individual  liberty  all  tended  to 
turn  the  energies  of  the  English  people  towards 
the  making  of  money  and  the  utilisation  of  capital, 
and  in  its  modern  form  of  joint  stock  enterprise 
this  new  vitality  was  already  conspicuous.  Yet  at 
the  same  time  men  were  loath  to  act  without  the 
assistance  and  the  favour  of  the  Crown.  Some  of 
the  new  undertakings — such  as  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  which  had  been  incorporated  by  Royal 
Charter  —  had  been  successful.  The  Bank  of 
England  had  been  established  by  Montague  and 
the  Whigs  in  1694,  largely  in  the  interest  of  the 
merchants  of  London,  who  were  identified  with 
the  Whig  party,  and  its  creation,  in  spite  of  early 
difficulties,  was  already  seen  to  be  of  national 
importance.  Harley,  watchful  of  the  movements 
of  the  public  mind,  and  appreciative  of  the 
advantage  to  the  mercantile  community  of  the 
Bank  of  England,  became  responsible  for  another 
financial  scheme,  which  he  expected  would  supply 
the  Government  with  money  and  benefit  the 
landowners,  of  whom  he  was  a  representative. 
The  antagonism  of  town  and  country,  which  was 
accentuated  by  the  fact  that  these  localities  were 


LAND   BANK  ESTABLISHED        23 

in  some  degree  marked  by  religious  as  well  as  by 
political  differences,  thus,  under  the  influence  of 
modern  national  development,  took  a  new  form. 
The  originator  of  the  plan  was  Dr.  Hugh 
Chamberlen,  one  of  those  charlatans  who  some- 
times are  able  to  impose  even  on  sensible  men. 
This  medical  practitioner  had  before  1696  per- 
sistently advertised  his  scheme  of  a  Land  Bank, 
and  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  had, 
in  1693,  pronounced  it  to  be  practicable.  In 
February  1696  the  House  of  Commons  passed  a 
resolution  that  money  should  be  raised  by  this 
means,  and  Harley  thereupon  carried  through 
Parliament  a  BilP  which,  among  other  financial 
details,  created  what  was  to  be  called  a  National 
Land  Bank.  Two  and  a  half  millions  were  to  be 
raised  by  public  subscription,  the  loan  bearing 
interest  at  the  rate  of  7  per  cent.,  which  was  to 
be  paid  from  the  proceeds  of  a  special  Salt  Tax, 
and  the  subscribers  were  to  be  incorporated  as 
the  Governor  and  Company  of  the  National  Land 
Bank.  Half  a  million  was  to  be  advanced  to 
landowners  on  mortgage  at  3^  per  cent,  interest, 
and  the  Bank  was  empowered  to  issue  notes.  To 
gratify  the  landowners  and  the  Tories,  no  person 
interested  in  the  Bank  of  England  was  to  have 
any  share  or  lot  in  the  new  undertaking.  The 
idea  was  attractive  to  a  Government  which  was 

1  7  &  8  Will.  III.  c.  31. 


24  ROBERT   HARLEY 

hard  pressed  for  money ;  it  pleased  the  country 
party,  and  it  appeared  likely  to  give  to  it  the  same 
credit  which  the  Bank  of  England  had  given  to  its 
opponents.  Fortunately,  a  scheme  which  would 
assuredly  have  ruined  all  connected  with  it,  from  the 
first  found  no  popular  support,  the  people  showing 
more  sagacity  than  Parliament.  Scarcely  a  penny 
was  raised,  much  to  the  chagrin  of  its  promoters, 
who  forgot  that  by  excepting  from  any  participation 
in  it  those  who  were  connected  with  the  Bank  of 
England,  they  were  eliminating  most  men  of  busi- 
ness, and  that  neither  for  loan  nor  notes  was  there 
any  sufficient  or  realisable  security.^  Failure,  how- 
ever, though  this  scheme  was,  its  legislative  incep- 
tion throws  light  both  on  Harley's  character  and 
career,  since  we  see  him  carrying  a  financial 
measure  which,  unsound  though  it  may  have  been, 
was  at  the  time  regarded  as  of  the  first  importance 
by  large  numbers  of  his  contemporaries,  and  was 
undoubtedly  an  ingenious  attempt  to  utilise  grow- 
ing commercial  tendencies  for  the  needs  of  a 
political  party. 

In  a  parliamentary  sense  Harley  had  now,  and 
at  an  early  age,  attained  a  position  which  was 
certain  to  lead  sooner  or  later  to  office.  Hitherto, 
in  the  first  stage  of  his  life,  he  had  been  eminently 
successful.      He  was   presently  to   pass   on   to  a 

^  Pari.  Hist.,  v.  pp.  994,  1 1 56.     Rogers,  First  Nine  Years  of  the 
Bank  of  England^  p.  50  et  seq. 


POSITION  IN  PARLIAMENT,   1701-2    25 

stormier  sea,  where  more  commanding  qualities 
than  he  had  yet  been  called  upon  to  show  were 
essential  for  a  statesman.  Up  to  this  point  he  had 
been  in  a  state  of  comparative  political  freedom  ; 
he  was  as  yet  unbound  by  troublesome  party  ties, 
his  action  was  still  unfettered  by  the  necessity  of 
aiming  at  definite  political  objects,  and  of  consider- 
ing personal  idiosyncrasies  either  of  colleagues 
or  of  his  sovereign.  His  keen  perception  of 
political  currents,  his  common  sense,  his  dislike 
of  extreme  courses,  had  hitherto  been  actually 
advantageous  to  him,  though  in  later  years  these 
same  qualities  tended  to  his  weakness. 

The  first  period  of  Harley  s  life,  as  we  have 
seen,  ends  with  the  century.  Hitherto  he  has 
been  steadily  pursuing  a  parliamentary  career, 
and  he  has  been  noticeable  as  one  of  an  active, 
intelligent,  and  influential  family,  keenly  interested 
both  in  the  affairs  of  the  nation  and  of  his  country, 
one  of  a  family  group,  with  each  member  of  which 
he  was  and  always  remained  on  friendly  and 
affectionate  terms,  and  every  one  of  whom  always 
delighted  in  his  successes  and  sympathised  with 
him  in  his  trials.  Up  to  this  date  his  father  and 
his  brother  Edward,^  who  in  a  useful  public  life 

^  Edward  Harley,  1664-1735,  a  member  of  the  Middle  Temple, 
M.P.  for  Leominster  1698-1722.  In  1702  he  was  appointed  Auditor 
of  the  Imprest  for  life.  He  wrote  some  works  on  religious  subjects, 
and  took  an  active  and  practical  interest  in  charitable  schemes  both 
in  London  and  in  Herefordshire. 


26  ROBERT   HARLEY 

well  sustained  the  traditions  of  the  family,  are  more 
clearly  defined  characters  than  Robert  Harley ;  for 
even  in  those  early  years  he  was  reserved,  careful 
in  his  expressions  of  opinion,  but  popular  for  his 
moderation  and  for  a  kindly  manner  which  he 
never  lost,  since  it  was  the  outcome  of  a  kind 
heart.  Often,  indeed,  in  later  life  his  good  nature 
was  turned  by  his  enemies  to  his  disadvantage. 
It  was  his  habit  to  promise  where  he  could  not 
perform,  to  speak  smoothly  to  hide  his  intentions  ; 
such  were  the  things  said  against  him,  not  always 
without  foundation.  But  sometimes  a  desire  to 
oblige,  and  a  dislike  to  refuse  in  the  one  case,  and 
a  wish  not  to  hurt  by  harsh  words  and  a  curt 
manner  in  the  other,  became  to  prejudiced  persons 
evidence  of  insincerity  and  cunning. 

In  those  days,  too,  there  must  have  been  much 
that  was  agreeable  in  his  character,  since  there 
had  grown  up  a  close  friendship  between  himself 
and  Charles  Montague.^     They  were  of  the  same 

^  Charles  Montague  (1661-1715),  created  Baron  Halifax  in  1700, 
and  raised  to  an  earldom  in  17 14.  In  1687,  in  collaboration  with 
Prior,  he  wrote  a  burlesque  of  Dryden's  "Hind  and  Panther."  In 
1689  he  was  elected  to  the  Convention  Parliament,  and  in  1692 
became  a  Lord  of  the  Treasury.  In  1694  he  carried  a  Bill  which 
created  the  Bank  of  England,  and  in  the  same  year  was  appointed 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  In  1697  Montague  became  First 
Lord  of  the  Treasury  in  place  of  Godolphin.  In  1699  his  great 
influence  in  the  House  of  Commons  began  to  decline,  and  he 
resigned  his  offices  on  being  created  a  peer.  Henceforth  he 
continued  to  take  a  leading  part  in  English  politics  —  becoming 
First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  in  17 14  for  the  second  time,  acting 
consistently  with  the  Whig  party. 


FRIENDSHIP  WITH  MONTAGUE    27 

age,  and  Montague  had  already  won  a  conspicuous 
parliamentary  position  by  his  brilliant  talents,  and 
by  his  remarkable  financial  ability.  But  the  ease 
and  courtesy  of  Harley's  manner,  and  a  temper 
rarely  ruffled,  concealed  a  mind  watchful  and  re- 
sourceful, ever  active  in  schemes  to  effectuate  its 
aims,  until,  somewhat  after  middle  age,  a  career 
which  had  been  one  of  continuous  work  and  of 
constant  anxiety,  and  the  lassitude  which  comes 
from  health,  lessened  his  mental  vigour.  His 
father  and  brother  were  of  a  franker  and  more 
open  nature,  and  were  sometimes  unable  to  under- 
stand a  character  and  a  capacity  which  were 
gradually  giving  him  a  political  position  scarcely 
realised  by  his  relatives. 


CHAPTER  II 

SPEAKER  AND  SECRETARY  OF  STATE 
1701-1705 

Harley  elected  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons- 
State  OF  Political  Parties— England  and  France— Harley 
again  elected  Speaker  in  Last  Parliament  of  William  in. 
—Accession  of  Anne — Declaration  of  War  with  France 
— Harley  Speaker  in  Parliament  of  1702 — Effect  of  the 
War  on  Domestic  Politics— Secretary  of  State— Occasional 
Conformity  Bill— Harley's  Management  of  the  House  of 
Commons— His  Political  Position— Harley  and  Godolphin. 

The  second  period  of  Harley's  life  begins  with  the 
year  1701,  when  on  loth  February  he  was  elected 
Speaker  in  the  fourth  Parliament  of  William  in.^ 
The  office  had  in  the  first  instance  been  offered  to 
the  veteran  Tory  leader,  Sir  Edward  Seymour;  but 
the  very  day  he  declined  it,  Godolphin  nominated 
Harley.^  By  his  opposition,  temperate  though  it 
was,  to  the  proposals  of  the  King  in  regard  to  a 
standing  army  in  the  previous  Parliament,  Harley 
had  gained  favour  with  the  Tories,  while  his  know- 
ledge of  parliamentary  business,   his   family  con- 

^  His  opponent  was  Sir  Thomas  Onslow,  who  was  defeated  by 
one  hundred  and  twenty  votes.— Pari.  Hist.y  vol.  v.  p.  1232. 
2  Harley  Papers^  ii.  14. 


SPEAKER  OF  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS     29 

nections,  and  his  admitted  moderation  of  opinion, 
caused  his  candidature  to  be  regarded  favourably 
in  nearly  every  part  of  the  House.  Evelyn  notes 
the  fact  in  a  suggestive  sentence:  "The  old 
Speaker  laid  aside,  and  Mr.  Harley,  an  able 
gentleman,  chosen."  In  the  words  of  an  impartial 
and  experienced  observer,  we  have  the  best  indica- 
tion of  the  real  opinion  of  Harley  among  those  who 
were  not  political  partisans,  and  the  best  evidence 
of  the  influential  position  to  which  he  had  already 
risen. 

The  evolution  of  two  well-defined  parliamentary 
and  political  parties  out  of  two  radical  and  national 
divisions  was  now  in  progress.  To  the  one 
belonged  the  clergy  of  the  Established  Church,  the 
majority  of  landowners  and  country  gentry,  and 
many  of  the  peers ;  to  the  other  the  Nonconformists 
and  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns,  whether  engaged 
in  commerce  or  professions.  The  first,  which  was 
once  the  Royalist  party,  acquiesced — many  of  them 
reluctantly — in  the  Revolution ;  the  other  assisted 
and  welcomed  it,  but  in  order  to  complete  it  had 
to  support  the  foreign  policy  of  William  in.  The 
Whigs  thus  became  the  War  party.  The  death 
of  the  King  (8th  March  1702),  however,  removed 
a  strong  individual  force  from  the  conduct  of  public 
affairs,  while  the  fact  that  his  successor  was  a 
woman  increased  the  influence  of  the  change, 
hastening  the  transference  of  the  executive  power 


30  ROBERT   HARLEY 

from  the  Sovereign  to  a  select  body  of  the  chief 
politicians  who  were  becoming  the  Cabinet.    Greater 
responsibility  was   thrown   on   leading   statesmen, 
who  were  necessarily  obliged  to  seek  support  from 
their    adherents    in    the    country    and    from    the 
representatives  of  it  in   Parliament.      Thus   from 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth    century  the  two 
political  bodies  became  more  compact,  the  members 
in  Parliament  less  individual,  and  more  organised 
in  a  course  of  continuous  political  action  session  by 
session.    In  other  words,  a  purely  dual  party  system 
was  in  process  of  formation,   definite  though  im- 
perfect, not  easy  to  reckon  with  but  often  of  re- 
markable force.     Religious  freedom  and  toleration 
were  the  basis  of  the  Whig  party,  as  support  of 
the  Church  of  England  and  of  clericalism  was  that 
of  the  Tories ;   again,  the  right  of  the  people  to 
choose  their  own  sovereign  underlay  Whig  prin- 
ciples, as  the  divine  right  of  kings  was  believed 
in  by  many  Tories.     But  in  no  other  respect  were 
the  characteristics  of  the  two  parties,  which  are  so 
conspicuous   later   in    the   eighteenth   and    in   the 
nineteenth  centuries,  then  visible.     The  Whigs  in 
the  reign  of  William  iii.  were  the  Court  party,  as 
the  Tories  were  in  that  of  Anne  and  of  George  in. ; 
but  on  the  other  hand,  the  Whigs  were  throughout 
the  reign  of  Anne  the  War  party,  as  the  Tories  were 
the  Peace  party.     The  Whigs  found  most  support 
in  the  towns,  and  the  Tories  in  the  country ;  but 


STATE   OF  PARTIES   IN    1701-2     31 

though  the  difference  gradually  tended  to  the 
liberalism  of  the  one  and  the  conservatism  of  the 
other,  it  did  not  in  the  age  of  Anne  affect  their 
action  in  regard  to  social  or  commercial  questions. 
There  was,  in  fact,  except  as  to  religious  toleration, 
little  to  remind  us  of  the  parties  of  a  later  time. 
The  favour  with  which  the  Whigs  regarded  the 
Hanoverian  succession,  and  the  sympathy  of  the 
Tories,  though  not  universally — since  the  Whim- 
sical or  Hanoverian  Tories  are  constantly  in 
evidence — for  the  Pretender,  were  the  result  of  a 
past  national  struggle,  and  were  abnormal  features 
of  party  distinctions,  though,  as  Harleys  life 
markedly  exemplifies,  they  were  invaluable  for  the 
purposes  of  political  warfare.  While,  therefore,  it 
is  convenient  in  the  age  of  Anne  to  designate  the 
two  adverse  parties  by  names  which  have  grown 
familiar,  and  which  even  then  had  sufficient  signi- 
fication, we  must  be  careful  to  realise  that  they 
had  not  the  exact  meaning  of  more  modern  times. 
Nor  should  the  posthumous  influence  on  English 
parties  of  William  iii.,  and  of  his  policy,  the  basis 
of  which  was  an  Anglo- Dutch  alliance  against 
France,  be  overlooked.  The  Dutch,  too,  were 
Protestants,  with  whom  the  Dissenters  were  in 
sympathy,  and  the  French  Protestant  emigres 
were  active  members  of  the  Whig  party,  anta- 
gonistic to  the  existing  government  in  France. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  preference  of  the  Church 


32  ROBERT   HARLEY 

of  England  and  of  many  of  the  Tories  was  for 
a  friendship  with  France,  where  the  divine  right 
of  kings  still  flourished.  Sentiment  plays  a  larger 
part  in  international  affairs  than  statesmen  are 
willing  to  admit,  and  it  had  a  considerable  effect 
in  shaping  the  views  of  the  two  great  English 
parties  upon  foreign  affairs  during  the  reign 
of  Anne.  For  from  1710  the  peace  policy  of 
Harley's  ministry  was  adhered  to  not  only  because 
the  people  desired  the  cessation  of  the  war,  but 
because  it  was  a  French  and  therefore  a  Tory 
policy.  Friendship  for  France,  as  much  as  its 
benefit  to  England,  was  the  basis  of  Bolingbroke's 
commercial  treaty,  and  friendship  for  Holland — 
the  direct  legacy  of  William — was  in  a  measure  a 
cause  of  the  virulent  opposition  of  the  Whigs  to 
the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  and  especially  to  the  negotia- 
tions which  preceded  it. 

The  action  of  parties  was  frequently  uncertain, 
and  was  complicated  by  the  sovereign's  consider- 
able personal  influence ;  but  it  reflected  and  was 
influenced  by  the  opinion  of  the  constituencies, 
undemocratic  though  they  were,  which  in  their  turn 
were  addressed  by  writers  on  behalf  of  the  party 
leaders,  who  were  the  forerunners  of  the  modern 
party  journalists,  and  of  whose  increasing  influence 
no  one  was  so  perceptive  or  appreciative  as  Harley. 

At  the  moment  of  its  election  in  the  first  year 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  House  of  Commons 


ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE  33 

represented  the  state  of  opinion  of  the  majority  of 
the  people,  a  majority  which  was  eagerly  desirous 
of  peace  and  of  relief  from  the  burdens  of  war,  but 
only  of  a  peace  which  should  not  involve  a  disturb- 
ance of  the  new  constitution  and  of  the  Protestant 
religion.  The  ignorance  of  Louis  xiv.  and  his 
advisers  of  the  sensitiveness  on  these  two  points 
of  the  English  people,  produced  a  rapid  change 
of  public  opinion  on  the  question  of  peace.  In 
November  1700  the  French  King  had,  on  the  death 
of  Charles  11.  of  Spain,  repudiated  the  Partition 
Treaties  of  1698  and  of  1700,  by  which  the 
kingdom  of  Spain  was  to  be  so  divided  on  the 
death  of  its  existing  ruler  as  not  to  fall  to  the  lot 
of  the  Bourbons.  With  utter  disregard  for  these 
international  engagements,  which  were  made  to 
preserve  the  peace  of  Europe,  Louis  accepted  for  his 
grandson,  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  the  crown  which  by 
the  will  of  the  late  sovereign  was  bequeathed  to  the 
Dauphin's  son.  This  act  would  probably  have  had 
no  great  effect  on  English  opinion,  nor  have  pro- 
duced a  European  war,  had  not  Louis  towards  the 
end  of  1 701,  with  the  assent  of  the  Spanish  authori- 
ties, taken  possession  of  the  line  of  Spanish  fortresses 
which  bordered  the  Netherlands,  and  ten  days 
after  the  Triple  Alliance  was  signed  (7th  September 
1701),  on  the  death  of  James  11.,  recognised  the 
Pretender  as  King  of  England.  The  Tory  Parlia- 
ment, which  during  its  brief  and  stormy  existence 
3 


34  ROBERT   HARLEY 

had  impeached  the  Whig  leaders,  Portland,  Somers, 
Halifax,  and  Orford,  and  had  committed  the  Kentish 
petitioners  to  prison,  no  longer  representing  the 
feeling  of  the  country,  was  dissolved  by  the  King 
in  November,  and  was  replaced  by  one  in  which 
the  Whigs  were  in  a  majority.  The  general 
election  of  November-December  1701  was  fought 
on  the  issue  of  confidence  or  no  confidence  not  in 
a  Ministry  responsible  to  the  country,  but  in  the 
King,  who  was  his  own  Prime  Minister,  and  the 
country  gave  him  the  answer  he  desired.  When 
the  sixth  and  last  Parliament  of  William  in. 
assembled  (30th  December  1701),  Harley  was 
again  chosen  Speaker,  but  only  by  fourteen  votes, 
over  Sir  Thomas  Littleton,  the  candidate  of  the 
Court,  and  William  opened  the  new  session  by  a 
speech  which  became  a  political  testament.  Not 
only  did  he  formulate  a  foreign  policy  by  which 
England  was  to  take  her  part  as  a  continental 
power,  but  also,  under,  it  is  said,  the  advice  of 
Somers,  he  recommended  domestic  divisions  which 
affected  parties  for  many  years  after  his  death. 
**  Let  there  be  no  other  distinction  heard  of  among 
us  for  the  future  but  of  those  who  are  for  the 
Protestant  religion  and  the  present  Establishment, 
and  of  those  who  mean  a  Popish  prince  and  a 
French  Government."  This  was  at  the  moment 
an  effective  war-cry,  for  it  rallied  to  the  Govern- 
ment that  great  mass  of  non-party  men  who  would 


SPEAKER  FOR  THIRD   TIME       35 

not  tolerate  the  return  of  the  Stuarts,  or  any  risk 
to  the  Protestant  reHgion,  but  it  helped  to  create  a 
parliamentary  party  system  by  accentuating  national 
divisions  during  the  whole  of  Harley  s  political 
career. 

It  was  not  until  the  4th  of  May  1702,  almost 
two  months  after  the  death  of  William,  that  war 
was  declared.  The  new  Parliament,  which  met  on 
20th  October  1 702,  was  Tory,  and  Harley  for  the 
third  time  became  Speaker.  The  change  of  party 
predominance  in  the  House  of  Commons  was 
remarkable  but  not  surprising,  since  the  Tories 
were  not  for  the  time  being  opposed  to  a  popular 
war,  and  there  had  rapidly  sprung  up  a  feeling 
of  personal  loyalty  to  the  new  sovereign,  which 
stirred  the  Conservative  forces  in  the  constitu- 
encies. Godolphin  gathered  under  his  leadership 
a  Tory  Cabinet,  which  presently  resolved  itself  into 
a  Whig  administration  ;  but  at  first,  though  the  war 
was  a  Whig  war,  and  was  waged  to  carry  out  the 
principles  of  European  policy,  which  had  seemed 
good  to  the  late  King  and  to  his  Whig  friends,  it 
had  the  approval  of  the  Tories  and  of  the  people. 

But  it  introduced  into  English  politics,  at  the 
moment  when  political  and  parliamentary  parties 
were  assuming  their  modern  form,  a  factor  at 
once  extraordinary  and  powerful,  affecting  Harley 
more  than  any  other  statesman.  By  temperament 
and  by  opinion  he  was  averse  to  England  becom- 


36  ROBERT  HARLEY 

ing  involved  in  European  complications,  costly 
both  in  money  and  life.  Thus  the  war  was  a 
practical  reason  for  a  closer  alliance  between 
Harley  and  the  Tory  party,  which  presently 
became  for  the  next  few  years  the  Peace  party. 
But  in  internal  politics  there  were  two  cardinal 
divisions  in  existence  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end  of  the  reign  of  Anne.  The  Whigs, 
except  on  one  singular  and  abnormal  occasion, 
were  the  defenders  of  religious  freedom  and 
toleration,  and  they  were  unanimously  and  strenu- 
ously in  favour  of  the  Hanoverian  succession. 
The  Tories,  on  the  other  hand,  were  the  Church 
party,  were  full  of  sectarian  bitterness,  and  some 
were  unquestionably  Jacobites.  Had  there  been 
no  war  Harley  s  natural  place  would  have  been 
with  the  Whigs,  but  the  war  prevented  this  political 
connection,  and  was  the  cause  of  introducing  into 
his  career  curious  and  remarkable  complications. 

Once  the  new  war  was  commenced,  the  national 
strength  was  spent  upon  it :  it  engrossed  the 
attention  of  the  country  and  of  Parliament,  the 
thoughts  of  Godolphin  and  his  Ministers.  Such  was 
the  state  of  affairs  whilst  Harley  during  his  third 
term  occupied  the  Chair  of  the  House  of  Commons 
— a  place  to  which  his  moderation  both  of  opinion 
and  in  debate,  the  absence  of  party  bias  which  was 
so  conspicuous  in  his  character  and  speeches,  and 
his    knowledge    of    the    practice   of   Parliament, 


APPOINTED  SECRETARY  OF  STATE   37 

rightly  entitled  him.  In  this  position  he  remained 
until  April  1705.  A  year  previously,  however,  he 
had  become  also  Secretary  of  State  with  apparent 
reluctance  and  under  some  pressure  from  Marl- 
borough, who  recognised  in  him  a  politician  posit- 
ively loving  parliamentary  business,  and  free  from 
that  party  bias  which  the  soldier  so  thoroughly 
detested. 

*'  I  am  sensibly  concerned,"  wrote  the  general 
in  1703,  **at  what  you  mention  of  the  heats  that 
continue  between  the  two  parties,  and  should  esteem 
it  the  greatest  happiness  of  my  life  if  I  could  any 
way  contribute  towards  the  allaying  them.  Upon 
this  occasion  you  will  give  me  leave  to  be  so  free  as 
to  tell  you  that  what  you  write  confirms  me  very 
much  in  the  desire  I  have  for  some  time  had,  of 
retiring  from  these  uneasy  and  troublesome  broils."  ^ 

Harley  thus  joined  the  Government  almost  as 
a  non-party  man.  At  most  he  was  a  moderate 
Tory,  not  in  principle,  but  to  some  extent  because, 
in  addition  to  causes  already  stated,  both  his  father 
and  he  had  opposed  what  they  regarded  as  the 
extravagant  financial  policy  of  the  late  King,^  which 

1  Longleat  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.  Com.,  p.  56. 

2  "  Sir  E.  Harley  ...  in  this  and  the  succeeding  Parliaments  con- 
stantly opposed  the  extravagant  ways  they  were  then  taking  for 
running  the  nation  into  debt,  and  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act.  This  drew  upon  him  and  his  family  the  implacable 
rage  of  the  Lord  Wharton,  Lord  Somers,  and  the  other  Whigs  of 
their  party." — Memoirs  of  the  Harley  family,  by  Edward  Harley, 
Auditor  of  the  Exchequer.     Harley  Papers^  iii.  645. 


38  ROBERT   HARLEY 

was  supported  by  the  Whigs,  who  in  domestic 
politics  were  the  friends  of  civil  and  religious 
freedom.  He  superseded  the  overbearing  and 
bigoted  Nottingham,  and  he  had  so  high  a  reputa- 
tion for  sobriety  of  thought  and  action,  that  Go- 
dolphin  might  reasonably  expect  that  by  securing 
him  as  a  member  of  his  administration  he  had 
definitely  attached  to  his  middle  party  one  who, 
if  nominally  a  Tory,  would  carry  with  him  the 
moderate  members  of  that  party  without  offending 
the  Whigs,  on  w^hom  he  could  most  steadily  rely. 
Nor  would  Godolphin  have  been  disappointed 
if  he  had  not  underestimated  the  violence  of 
partisanship  and  the  bitterness  of  party  hostility, 
as  well  as  the  influence  of  the  Queen.  An 
uncertain  and  obscure  political  factor,  she  was 
neither  stupid  nor  spiritless.  She  was  impressed 
with  the  idea  of  the  sovereign's  personal  responsi- 
bility, but  she  was  greatly  under  the  influence  of 
those  around  her.  Her  mind  was  neither  resolute 
nor  quick ;  she  was  affected  by  constant  ill-health, 
and  the  only  consistent  political  motive  which 
influenced  her  was  a  predilection  for  the  High 
Church  party,  which  necessarily  produced  a  dislike 
of  the  Whigs,  identified  as  they  were  with  the 
Nonconformists.  It  is  needless  to  attempt  to 
apportion  minutely  how  much  of  each  political 
action  of  the  Queen  belonged  to  her  initiative  or 
to  the  advice  and  the  support  of  her  immediate 


HARLEY  AND   GODOLPHIN        39 

friends ;  but  whether  moved  by  her  own  volition 
or  by  those  around  her,  she  had  an  important 
influence  on  the  course  of  events. 

The  accession  of  Harley  to  the  Cabinet  gave 
Godolphin  more  than  a  painstaking   and  zealous 
member  of  his  administration,  for  Harley  at  once 
became  the  most  trusted   and  the  most  intimate 
of  his  colleagues,  upon  whose  judicious  advice  in 
regard  to  home  and  foreign  affairs,  and  to  many 
delicate  personal  matters,  it  was  his  practice  con- 
stantly to  rely.     Godolphin's  confidence  in  Harley 
necessarily  increased    Marlborough's   trust   in   the 
new  Secretary  of  State,  and  there  is  no  stronger 
confutation  of  the  erroneous  view  which  has  often 
been    taken   of   Harley 's   capacity,    than    the    un- 
bounded trust  in  his  zeal  and  abilities  which  was 
shown  by  Godolphin  and  Marlborough  from  1704 
to  1707.     Harley 's  tone  towards  Godolphin  during 
this  period,  as   indicated   by   his   correspondence, 
was  one  of  an   almost   too   subservient  humility, 
which  may  well  have  led  Godolphin  to  think  that 
Harley  would  never  differ  from  him  on  any  vital 
point  of  policy ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  Godol- 
phin's unconcealed  reliance  on  him  may  easily  have 
deceived  even  so  sagacious  a  man  as  Harley,  and 
caused  him    to   believe   that  he  was  too  valuable 
a   colleague    to    be   dismissed    from    Godolphin's 
administration.^     He  underrated  Harley's  political 

1  Longleat  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.  Com.,  p.  51. 


40  ROBERT   HARLEY 

foresight  and  firmness,  and  he  could  not  forecast 
the  influence  of  the  war  on  popular  feeling. 

Harley  took  office  in  May,  amid  universal  con- 
gratulation. **  The  superiority  of  your  genius," 
wrote  the  Duke  of  Shrewsbury,  a  nobleman  second 
to  none  in  the  country  in  influence  and  sound 
judgment,  **will  make  that  easy  to  you  which 
others  have  found  vexatious."  ^ 

In  August  (1704)  Marlborough  fought  the 
battle  of  Blenheim.  When  the  civilised  world 
was  ringing  with  his  victory,  the  Tories  could  not 
hope  for  popular  support  in  any  attacks  that  they 
might  make  on  the  General  or  on  the  policy  of  the 
administration  which  supported  him. 

Blenheim  gave  renewed  confidence  to  the 
Whigs,  and  enabled  Harley  easily  to  rally  round 
him  the  moderate  Tories.  His  parliamentary  tact 
was  needed  by  the  Ministry,  for  the  extreme  mem- 
bers of  the  Tory  party,  elated  by  their  success  at 
the  last  general  election,  and  relying  on  the  High 
Church  predilections  of  the  Queen,  had  thrown 
aside  any  assumption  of  religious  toleration,  and 
early  in  the  new  Parliament  carried  through  the 
House  of  Commons  a  Bill  to  prevent  Occasional 
Conformity.  That  practice  was  certainly  not 
theoretically  admirable,  and  it  was  one  which 
De  Foe,  friend  though  he  was  of  the  Dissenters, 
was  constantly  criticising.  But  it  was  the  result 
1  Longleat  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.  Com.,  p.  57. 


OCCASIONAL  CONFORMITY  BILL    41 

of  intolerant  legislation,  and  it  was  the  only  means 
by  which  a  Dissenter  was  eligible  for  various  civil 
offices  ;  by  taking  the  Sacrament  once  he  complied 
with  legal  conditions.  But  the  Bill,  in  December 
1702,  was  ultimately  lost.  Neither  Lords  nor 
Commons  would  surrender  their  amendments ; 
conference  after  conference  was  in  vain.  To  the 
annoyance  of  many  of  the  more  reasonable  Tories, 
the  most  virulent  of  the  party,  actuated  by  an 
extraordinary  sectarian  bitterness,  and  a  positive 
personal  animosity  to  the  Dissenters,  in  the  follow- 
ing session  (25th  November  1703)  introduced  and 
carried  a  Bill  on  similar  lines,  but  more  moderate 
in  detail,  through  the  House  of  Commons.  It  was 
of  course  rejected  by  the  Lords.  Such  were  then 
the  strange  complexities  of  party  warfare,  that  it 
was  supported  by  Godolphin  and  opposed  by  the 
majority  of  the  Bishops.  But  the  subject  was  not 
allowed  to  slumber,  and  presently  the  headstrong 
Tories  decided  (1704)  to  **tack"  an  Occasional 
Conformity  to  a  Land  Tax  Bill,  with  the  object  of 
obliging  the  House  of  Lords — unable  by  constitu- 
tional usage  to  reject  money  Bills — to  pass  the 
purely  political  measure.  Harley's  conduct  now 
justified  Marlborough's  selection,  for  it  was  he 
who  took  the  chief  share  in  defeating  this 
manoeuvre  in  the  House  of  Commons.  The 
House  of  Lords  was  certain  to  throw  out,  directly 
or  indirectly,  the  Occasional  Conformity  Bill  alone ; 


42  ROBERT   HARLEY 

joined  to  a  money  Bill  it  might  not  be  so  easy. 
Thus  this  step  of  the  High  Churchmen  was  objec- 
tionable to  Harley  from  every  point  of  view  :  as  a 
friend  of  the  Dissenters  and  of  political  moderation, 
and  as  a  lover  of  parliamentary  precedent.  **  I 
hope  everybody  will  do  you  the  justice  to  attribute 
the  greatest  share  of  it  (the  rejection  of  this  motion 
to  *  tack'),  to  your  prudent  management  and  zeal  for 
the  public "  ;  ^  so  wrote  Marlborough  to  Harley. 
And  yet  even  this  obvious  action  gave  rise  to 
rumours  of  deceit.  The  Tories,  it  was  said,  took 
this  parliamentary  course  on  the  advice  of  the 
Speaker — advice  given  only,  it  was  asserted,  in 
order  to  decoy  them  into  a  snare.^ 

Blenheim — as  has  been  said — smoothed  Harley  s 
official  and  parliamentary  path  ;  he  would  be  the 
first  to  see  its  influence  on  public  opinion.  Six  years 
later  it  was  the  unpopularity  of  the  war — of  which 
he  was  equally  aware — that  enabled  him  to  super- 
sede Godolphin.  In  following  the  fortunes  of  the 
statesmen  of  the  age  of  Anne,  personal  contests 
and  Court  intrigues  have  been  too  much  considered. 
Larger  causes  were  affecting  the  course  of  English 
politics  :  the  progress  of  the  European  war,  the 
unrecognised  strength  of  the  English  party  system, 

^  1 6th  December  1704,  Coxe's  Marlborough^  ii.  69.  Longleat 
MS.,  Hist.  MSB.  Com.,  p.  65. 

^  Pari.  Hist.y  vol.  vi.  p.  359.  The  "tack"  was  rejected  by 
251  to  134  votes,  Harley  voting  in  the  majority.  Pari  Hist.y  vol. 
vi.  p.  368. 


HIS   POLITICAL   MODERATION     43 

the  powerful  factor  which  existed  in  the  sovereign's 
individual  will,  and  the  intense  determination  of 
the  people  never  to  accept  a  Roman  Catholic 
sovereign,  or  to  allow  any  attack  on  the  Established 
Church. 

For  eleven  months  Harley  was  both  Speaker 
and  Secretary  of  State — offices  to  modern  ideas 
so  incompatible.  As  Speaker  he  was  on  the  best 
of  terms  with  Godolphin  and  with  Marlborough, 
and  was  gaining  a  unique  influence  both  in  Parlia- 
ment and  the  country.  But  in  the  beginning  as 
in  the  end  of  his  official  life  the  same  things  were 
said  of  him.  When  he  became  Secretary  of  State 
he  was  called  a  ''trimmer"  by  those  who  disliked 
him,  and  he  was  taunted  with  having  **  caressed" 
both  parties.  When,  ten  years  later,  he  ceased  to 
be  Lord  Treasurer,  the  same  accusation,  uttered 
with  greater  emphasis,  was  heard  from  one  end 
of  England  to  the  other :  It  was  caused  by  an 
adherence  to  a  particular  course  of  political  conduct, 
which  was  based  on  a  reliance,  not  on  the  moderate 
members  of  one  party  only,  but  on  the  hope 
that  he  might  have  their  support,  and  at  the 
same  time  by  his  moderation  of  political  opinion 
gain  some  favour  with  their  opponents.  It  was 
an  elaborate  and  a  continuous  attempt  to  recognise 
and  yet  to  nullify  the  newly  developing  party 
system  by  a  man  to  whom  it  was  repugnant. 
Harley  never  attempted  to  form  a  middle  party ; 


44  ROBERT   HARLEY 

he  took  parties  as  they  were,  and  endeavoured  to 
pursue  a  course  of  conduct  which  was  necessarily 
insincere  and  calculated  to  dupe  both  sides.  This 
remarkable  political  position,  which  he  had  secured 
with  so  much  skill  and  tact,  is  well  illustrated  by 
a  singularly  frank  letter  written  in  1704  by  his 
friend,  Stanley  West,  at  the  very  moment  that  his 
management  of  the  House  of  Commons  was  so 
pleasing  to  Marlborough. 

"  For  want  of  other  information,  be  pleased  to 
give  me  leave  to  acquaint  you  with  my  observation 
of  people's  opinion  of  your  Honour.  You  have  a 
happier  fate  attending  you  than  any  in  the  present 
Ministry,  or  in  former  either.  You  are  entirely 
master  of  two  opposite  parties.  Both  think  you  to 
be  theirs,  and  confide  in  you  as  such,  to  promote 
their  several  different  interests.  Whatever  dis- 
tinguishing favour  you  show  to  either  side,  doth 
not  lessen  your  esteem  in  the  other  party ;  'tis  all 
ascribed  to  a  depth  of  policy  which  they  cannot 
comprehend,  and  which  they  say  is  peculiar  to 
yourself,  but  is  not  a  leaving  the  party.  And  in 
such  an  unprecedented  manner  do  you  manage 
the  heads  of  both  parties,  that  both  sides  believe, 
at  a  proper  time  and  occasion,  you  will  show 
yourself  entirely  in  their  distinct  interests.  I  am 
very  glad  to  see  so  eminent  a  post  free  from  the 
reproach   that   usually   hath    attended   it,   and  to 


SIDNEY,  EARL   OF   GODOLPHIN 

From  a  portrait  hi  the  possession  of  the  Duke  of  Leeds  at  Hornby  Castle,  Vorl-s 
(Probably  by  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller) 


COMPARED    WITH   GODOLPHIN     45 

observe  your  Honour  stands  so  right  in  the  people's 
opinion,  being  very  confident  you  will  so  manage 
the  weaknesses  and  follies  of  both  sides  as  will  in  the 
issue  redound  to  the  true  interest  and  advantage  of 
the  kingdom. 

**The  Duke,  the  Treasurer,  and  yourself  are 
called  the  Triumvirate,  and  reckoned  the  spring 
of  all  public  affairs  ;  and  that  your  interests  and 
counsels  are  so  united  and  linked  together  that 
they  cannot  be  broken,  nor  in  any  danger  of  it 
during  this  reign."  ^ 

It  was  natural  that  there  should  be  this  connec- 
tion between  Harley  and  Godolphin,  for  in  many 
points  they  were  strikingly  alike ;  yet  it  is  remark- 
able that  men  so  similar  in  political  opinion,  and 
so  little  fitted  in  many  ways  to  be  leaders,  should 
have  been  at  the  head  of  affairs  throughout  the 
reign  of  Queen  Anne.  '*  Both,"  writes  Mr.  Lecky, 
''were  slow,  cautious,  temporising,  moderate,  and 
somewhat  selfish  men,  tedious  and  insufficient  in 
debate,  and  entirely  without  sympathy  with  the 
political  and  religious  fanaticism  of  their  party." 
For  the  moment,  one  wonders  how  these  politicians, 
apparently  so  ordinary  in  character,  could  ever  have 
carried  on  the  business  of  the  nation.  But  while 
this  description  sets  out  in  negatives  certain 
similarities    of   both    statesmen,    it   omits    to    de- 

^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  215. 


46  ROBERT  HARLEY 

scribe  those  qualities  which  led  to  their  attainment 
of  power,  qualities  which  since  their  time  have  over 
and  over  again  been  found  to  be  the  most  valuable 
for  success,  not  only  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
but  in  every  representative  assembly  in  the  world 
— patience  and  perseverance  and  good  temper,  tact 
and  knowledge  of  business,  and  an  intuitive  insight 
(in  Godolphin  it  was  often  humorous)  into  the  weak- 
nesses of  men  with  whom  they  came  into  contact. 
By  the  admission  of  all  his  contemporaries,  Harley 
possessed  a  first-rate  capacity  as  a  leader  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  his  decline  may  perhaps 
be  dated  from  the  day  when  he  quitted  it. 


CHAPTER   III 

HARLEY  AND   DE  FOE 

1703-1714 

De  Foe  in  Newgate— Released  by  Harley's  Interces- 
sion—The Relations  between  De  Foe  and  Harley— De 
Foe's  Work— His  Mission  to  Scotland  — His  Hope  of 
Official  Employment— His  Opinion  on  Harley's  Fall  in 
1708— Continues  in  Godolphin's  Service  after  Harley's 
Dismissal  —  His  Return  to  Harley  in  17 10  — Prosecuted 
for  Libel  in  17 13— Intercession  of  Harley— The  Review— 
Harley  and  Journalism. 

It  was  in  1703,  while  Harley  was  still  Speaker, 
that  he  entered  into  close  relations  with  De  Foe. 
In  December  1702,  when  religious  passions  were 
roused  by  the  parliamentary  controversy  upon 
occasional  conformity,  De  Foe  had  published  The 
Shortest  Way  with  the  Dissenters,  Assuming  the 
character  of  a  High- Flyer — as  the  extreme  intoler- 
ant High  Churchmen  were  called,  whom  above  all 
others  De  Foe  disliked — the  writer  advised  the  ex- 
tirpation of  the  Nonconformists.  Characterised  by 
the  realism  which  marks  all  De  Foe's  works,  from  a 
New  Voyage  round  the  World  to  Robinson  Crusoe^ 
the  pamphlet  was  approved  by  many  Tories.  But 
its  publication  resulted  in  De  Foe's  prosecution  for 
libelling  the  Church.  He  was  convicted,  and  sen- 
tenced (July  1703)  to  imprisonment  and  the  pillory, 

47 


48  ROBERT   HARLEY 

and  for  the  last  three  days  of  the  month  stood  in 
Cornhill,  in  Cheapside,  and  at  Temple  Bar,  amid  a 
friendly  crowd,  who  drank  in  pots  of  beer  to  the 
health  of  the  author  of  the  True-Born  Englishman 
and  of  the  spirited  Hymn  to  the  Pillory. 

It  was  in  November  1703^  that,  through 
Harley's  good  offices,  De  Foe  was  set  at  liberty. 
**  What  you  propose  about  De  Foe  may  be  done 
when  you  will  and  how  you  will,"  wrote  Godolphin 
to  Harley  on  the  26th  of  September,  and  on  the  4th 
of  November  he  remarks,  *'  I  have  taken  care  on 
the  matter  of  De  Foe."  On  the  9th  comes  the  first 
of  those  numerous  and  vivid  letters,  full  of  varied 
facts  and  fresh  suggestions,  which  for  ten  years 
De  Foe  was  constantly  writing  to  Harley.  There 
was  but  one  interruption  in  their  course — during 
the  period  that  Harley  was  out  of  office. 

^  De  Foe's  biographers  have  placed  his  release  from  Newgate  as 
having  occurred  about  August  1704,  the  Review  as  having  been 
begun  in  Newgate  in  February  1704,  and  a  Collection  of  the  Most 
Remarkable  Casualties  and  Disasters  which  happened  in  the  Late 
Dreadful  Tempest  both  by  Sea  and  Land  as  being  the  first  of  his 
imaginative  works.  The  storm  reached  its  height  on  26th  November, 
and  De  Foe  tells  (p.  25),  with  every  appearance  of  truth,  how 
on  the  preceding  day  he  was  nearly  injured  by  materials  from  a 
house.  The  book  itself  is  largely  a  compilation  of  accounts  of  the 
storm,  many  of  which  have  the  appearance  of  simple  narratives  of 
facts.  This  publication,  taken  in  connection  with  the  letters  at 
Welbeck,  is  evidence  of  De  Foe's  release  in  1703.  That  he  was  set 
at  liberty  in  1703  is  further  substantiated  by  letters  of  the  12th  and 
presumably  i6th  May  1704  {Harley  Papers^  ii.  p.  83),  as  to  meetings 
with  Harley,  and  a  letter  from  an  informer  that  De  Foe  was  in  Canter- 
bury in  June  1704  (p.  93),  a  fact  quite  inconsistent  with  his  release  in 
August  1704.    The  dates  are  plainly  legible  in  the  original  letters. 


RELEASE   OF  DE   FOE  49 

**  As  there  is  something  surprising  in  your 
bounty  to  a  mortified  stranger,  so  I  am  more  than 
usually  at  a  loss  in  what  manner  to  express  my 
sense  of  it ;  but  at  the  same  time  that  you  stoop 
to  do  good  you  subject  yourself  to  a  necessity  of 
bearing  the  impertinence  of  a  thankful  temper. 

'*  Of  all  the  examples  in  sacred  story  none  moves 
my  indignation  like  that  of  the  ten  lepers  who  were 
healed  by  our  Saviour.  I,  like  that  one  grateful 
wretch,  am  come  back  to  pay  the  tribute  of  thank- 
fulness which  this  so  unexpected  goodness  com- 
mands from  me. 

**And  though  I  think  myself  bound  to  own 
you  as  the  principal  agent  of  this  Miracle,  yet, 
having  some  encouragement  from  you  to  expect 
more  particularly  to  know  my  benefactors,  I  cannot 
but  wish  for  that  discovery,  that  my  acknowledg- 
ments may  in  some  measure  be  proportioned  to 
the  quality  of  the  persons,  and  the  value  of  the 
favour. 

"It  remains  for  me  to  conclude  my  present 
application  with  this  humble  petition,  that  if  pos- 
sible I  may  by  some  means  or  other  know  what 
I  am  capable  of  doing,  that  my  benefactors,  who- 
ever they  are,  may  not  be  ashamed  of  their  bounty 
as  misapplied.  Not  that  I  expect  to  be  able  to 
merit  so  much  goodness ;  but  as  a  grateful  temper 
is  always  uneasy  to  be  loaded  with  benefits,  so 
the  virtue  which  I  call  gratitude  has  always  so 
4 


50  ROBERT   HARLEY 

much  pride  in  it,  as  makes  it  push  at  a  retribution, 
though  'tis  unable  to  effect  it.  Whoever  are  the 
principals  in  this  favour,  I  cannot  but  profess  myself 
a  debtor  wholly  to  yourself,  who  till  I  may  be 
otherwise  instructed  appears  the  original  as  to  me. 
And  in  the  kindness  the  manner  is  so  obliging, 
and  all  the  articles  of  it  so  generous,  that  as  a 
man  astonished  at  the  particulars,  I  am  perfectly 
unable  to  express  my  sense  of  it. 

"  Only  in  the  humblest  manner  I  can  most 
earnestly  pray  that  I  may  have  some  opportunity 
put  into  my  hands  by  Providence  to  make  more 
explicit  acknowledgments.  . 


"  1 


Harley  could  not  have  assisted  De  Foe  at  a  more 
critical  or  opportune  moment,  for  the  business  at 
his  brick  and  pantile  manufactory  at  Tilbury  had 
been  ruined  by  his  imprisonment.  **A11  my  pro- 
spects," he  wrote  to  Harley  after  his  release,  **  were 
built  on  a  manufactorie  I  had  erected  in  Essex ; 
all  the  late  King's  bounty  to  me  was  expended 
there.  I  employed  a  hundred  poor  families  at 
work,  and  it  began  to  pay  me  very  well.  I 
generally  made  six  hundred  pounds  profit  per 
annum.  I  began  to  live,  and  took  a  good  house, 
bought  me  coach  and  horses  a  second  time.  I 
paid  large  debts  gradually,  small  ones  wholly,  and 
many  a  creditor  after  composition  whom  I  found 
^  Harley  Papers^  ii*  75* 


DE   FOE   IN    1703  51 

poor  and  decayed,  I  sent  for  and  paid  the  re- 
mainder to,  though  actually  discharged."  ^  The 
brighter  De  Foe  painted  his  previous  good  fortune 
the  gloomier  appeared  his  subsequent  state,  and  it 
is  not  improbable  that  this  picture  is  a  little  over- 
coloured,  for  it  was  the  prelude  to  an  appeal  for 
help.  He  had  seven  children,  "whose  education," 
he  remarks,  with  his  usual  common  sense,  **  calls 
on  me  to  furnish  their  heads  if  I  cannot  their 
purses."  Yet  certainly  for  the  moment  De  Foe 
was  in  a  friendless  and  moneyless  state,  from 
which  he  was  undoubtedly  rescued  by  Harley. 
Thus  began  a  connection  which  had  no  little  in- 
fluence on  the  careers  of  both  men.  How  much 
Harley  owes  to  De  Foe's  ability  it  is  hardly  pos- 
sible to  overestimate ;  to  De  Foe  his  patronage 
was  for  the  next  ten  years  a  constant  source  of 
livelihood — the  means  of  a  most  active  existence 
as  a  pamphleteer  and  a  political  agent. 

Harley 's  action,  however,  did  more  than  restore 
De  Foe  to  freedom  and  to  prosperity,  it  placed  him 
— now  in  the  prime  of  life^ — again  in  touch  with  the 
leading  members  of  the  Government.  He  had  been 
in  the  confidence  of  William,  but  in  little  more  than 
a  year  he  had,  as  he  says,  tasted  the  difference 
between  the  closet  of  a  king  and  the  dungeon  of 
Newgate.  Voluminous  as  Voltaire  and  Diderot,  he 
was  not  a  philosophical  writer  stimulating  the  minds 

^  Harley  Pa^ers^  ii.  88.  ^  De  Foe  was  born  in  1660  or  1661. 


52  ROBERT  HARLEY 

of  his  readers  by  abstract  theories  ;  his  gifts  were  of 
a  quite  opposite  order,  for  he  had  an  extraordinary 
power  of  formulating  practical  projects,  to  execute 
which  a  man  high  in  office  was  necessary.  So 
that  when  De  Foe  gained  Harley's  support,  he  had 
obtained  not  only  personal  freedom  and  an  assured 
income,  but  also  the  possibility  of  securing  the 
fulfilment  of  some,  at  any  rate,  of  the  innumerable 
plans  which  were  always  in  his  head,  in  many  of 
which  he  anticipated  the  reforms  of  a  later  age. 

But  long  though  their  connection  lasted,  Harley 
was  never  united  to  De  Foe  by  that  tie  of  personal 
friendship  which  marked  his  intercourse  with  Swift. 
Their  relations  were  always  strictly  business-like, 
though  it  pleased  De  Foe  to  assert  that  they  were 
based  on  other  grounds  —  that  on  Harley's  part 
they  began  through  "a  generous  compassion  to  a 
man  oppressed  by  power  without  a  crime,"  that  on 
his  side  his  services  were  **  founded  rather,  and 
indeed  entirely,  on  a  deep  sense  of  duty  and  grati- 
tude for  that  early  goodness."  He  avowed  that 
he  had  full  liberty  to  pursue  his  "own  reason  and 
principles,  so  that  he  could  declare  his  innocence 
in  the  black  charge  of  bribery."^  All  this  and 
more  he  wrote  to  Harley  at  a  time  when  he  was 
in  receipt  of  a  fixed  salary  from  the  Government, 
and  of  special  payments  from  Harley  himself,  and 
he  reiterated  it  so  persistently  in  public,  that  there 

^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  213. 


HARLEY  AND  DE  FOE  53 

has  hitherto   been   a  doubt  whether  or  to  what 
extent  he  was  a  paid  agent.     But  it  should  never 
be  forgotten  that,  though  De  Foe  and  Harley  were 
united  by  a  tie  of  personal  and  reciprocal  interest, 
pecuniary  on   the   one   side  and  political  on   the 
other,    they  had   also   much    in   common.       Each 
possessed  a  sound  sense  producing  a  moderation 
of  political   opinion  ;    intolerance,  whether  among 
High  Churchmen  or  Dissenters,  Whigs  or  Tories, 
was  repugnant  to  each,  and  each  set  great  store  on 
peace,   progress,   and   social    improvement.      It   is 
thus  not  difficult  to  understand  how  De  Foe  and 
Harley  could  work  together,  differing  sometimes, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  peace  with   France,  or  on 
the  manner  of  securing  an  object,  but  agreeing  on 
general  principles  of  policy.     De  Foe  was  certainly 
not  always  consistent  in  his  treatment  of  political 
questions  :   thus,  after  Harley  lost  office  in  1708, 
his   advocacy  of  the  Whig  party  was   somewhat 
opposed  to  his  subsequent  writings  in  favour  of 
peace.       But    his    relationship   with    Harley    was 
characterised  by  a  general  consistency  of  political 
argument  which    shows   a  community  of  opinion 
between  the  writer   and  the  statesman.     'Durinof 
the    whole    of    their    connection    De    Foe    never 
hesitated  to  tell  his  patron  when  he  needed  money, 
and  Harley  was  never  niggardly  in  his  payment, 
though  no  one  could  have  had  a  better  return  for 
his  expenditure.    Just  as  Harley  employed  Ogilvie, 


54  ROBERT   HARLEY 

or  "  Jean  Gassiot "  as  he  called  himself,  in  Paris, 
so  he  utilised  the  services  of  De  Foe,  or — to  give 
him  his  assumed  names — "Mr.  Goldsmith"  or 
**  Claude  Guilot,"  in  England  and  Scotland.  De 
Foe  would  have  fulfilled  his  duty  had  he  stated 
only  such  facts  as  would  be  useful  to  his  employer, 
but  he  did  a  great  deal  more,  for  he  delighted  to 
give  his  personal  views  upon  every  point  which 
occurred  to  a  mind  never  at  rest,  and  extra- 
ordinarily fertile  and  imaginative.  His  opinions 
were  always  liberal,  and  his  vivid  imagination  was 
constantly  creating  plans  of  social  and  economical 
progress.  Nothing,  indeed,  is  more  noticeable 
than  the  outspokenness  of  De  Foe  and  Swift,  so 
opposed  not  only  to  Harley's  habitual  reticence, 
but  to  the  vagueness  and  want  of  candour  which 
at  that  time  marked  the  communications  of  so 
many  politicians  and  statesmen. 

Harley  did  more  than  effect  De  Foe's  release, 
he  obtained  for  him  an  allowance — probably  secret 
in  its  payment  —  which  after  the  loose  fashion 
of  the  times  was  by  no  means  always  punctually 
paid,  a  fact  of  which  De  Foe  took  good  care  to 
remind  his  patron.  "  I  am  forced  " — this  was  in 
171 2  —  *' by  importuning  circumstances  to  remind 
you  that  of  that  allowance  or  appointment,  which 
by  your  intercession  or  Her  Majesty's  goodness 
I  enjoy,  there  are  two  quarters  behind,  which 
insensibly  (except  to  me)  elapsed  during  the  melan- 


DE  FOE  EMPLOYED  BY  HARLEY  55 

choly  interval  when  your  Lordship  was  hurt  and 
things  unsettled."^ 

Not  long  after  De  Foe's  release  in  1703, 
Harley  began  to  use  De  Foe's  marvellous  capacity 
for  obtaining  intelligence,  and  for  describing  the 
results  of  his  journeys.  In  the  summer  of  1704  he 
was  commissioned  to  travel  through  England,  to 
ascertain  the  opinions  of  different  localities,  and  to 
report  systematically  to  Harley.  In  July,  as  he  is 
on  the  point  of  starting,  he  enthusiastically  declares, 
**  I  firmly  believe  the  journey  may  be  the  foundation 
of  such  an  intelligence  as  never  was  in  England."  ^ 

De  Foe  kept  his  word,  and  by  his  means  Harley 
was  enabled  to  obtain  a  view  of  English  opinion 
which  was  invaluable  to  him  in  forming  a  judgment 
upon  his  political  course.  De  Foe's  letters  were 
full  not  only  of  facts  but  of  original  ideas  deduced 
from  what  he  saw  and  heard,  and  of  vivid  sketches 
of  men  and  places.  He  was  more  than  a  mere 
collector  of  information ;  it  was  part  of  his  task  to 
mould  opinion  and  to  lead  it  towards  that  temper- 
ance in  political  thought  on  which  Harley  set  so 
high  a  value. 

*'  In  all  parts,"  says  De  Foe  to  his  patron  in 
1705,  at  the  end  of  a  long  paper  which  he  calls 
"  An  Abstract  of  my  Journey  with  Casual  Observa- 
tions on  Public  Affairs,"  '*the  greatest  hindrance 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  214.     See  also  ibid.^  p.  275. 
2  Harley  Papers^  ii.  106. 


56  ROBERT   HARLEY 

to  the  forming  the  people  into  moderation  and 
union  among  themselves,  next  to  the  Clergy,  are 
the  Justices."^  In  a  letter  of  somewhat  earlier 
date  he  speaks  of  **  spreading  principles  of  temper, 
moderation,  and  peace."  These  were  the  prin- 
ciples which  Harley  tried  to  follow  from  the  be- 
ginning until  the  end  of  his  parliamentary  career  ; 
it  was  his  manner  of  applying  them  to  practical 
politics  that  caused  so  much  adverse  criticism  in 
his  own  and  in  succeeding  ages. 

The  connection  between  Harley  and  De  Foe 
is  of  even  greater  moment  in  1 706,  when  the  union 
with  Scotland  became  the  burning  question  of 
domestic  politics,  and  the  articles  of  union  which 
were  signed  in  London  in  July  were  handed  to 
the  Scottish  people  and  Parliament  for  discussion. 
As  one  of  Godolphins  administration,  Harley  is 
entitled  to  the  credit  which  belongs  to  every 
member  of  a  Cabinet  which  carries  a  measure  so 
far-reaching  in  its  consequences  as  the  union 
between  England  and  Scotland.  Of  the  Lord 
Treasurer's  policy  Harley  unquestionably  approved, 
and   he   actively  aided  it.^      As  the   negotiations 

^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  272. 

2  The  following  is  one  example.  23rd  July  1706,  in  reference  to 
the  Duke  of  Queensberry,  Harley  says,  "  I  believe  now  he  has  an 
opportunity  of  serving  himself  and  at  the  same  time  doing  the 
greatest  thing  for  the  advantage  and  settlement  of  his  own  country 
such  as  no  man  before  ever  had  in  so  easy  a  way — what  I  mean  is 
as  to  the  union  which  I  might  plainly  show  it  is  his  Grace's  interest 
to  promote." — Harley  Papers^  ii.  318. 


DE   FOE   SENT   TO   SCOTLAND     57 

approached  the  final  stage,  Harley's  chief  ally  was 
De  Foe,  who,  after  completing  his  survey  of  Eng- 
land, was  sent  by  him  to  Scotland  upon  a  similar 
errand. 

On  13th  September  1706,  De  Foe  states  that 
he  was  about  to  wait  on  the  Minister,  and  take 
his  last  instructions  before  departing  for  Scotland, 
when  he  received  the  order  to  leave  at  once, 
without  further  conferences.  He  remarks  that  as 
Harley  has  acquainted  the  Queen  and  the  Lord 
Treasurer  with  his  mission,  it  is  important  that 
he  should  be  successful  in  it,  and  he  then  proposes 
to  set  down  what  he  understands  his  present 
business  to  be,  summarising  with  great  clearness 
and  brevity  the  results  of  the  conversations  which 
have  taken  place  between  himself  and  Harley  : — 

**  However,  that  if  my  notions  are  wrong  I  may 
be  set  right  by  your  instructions,  I  beg  leave,  though 
it  be  beginning  at  the  wrong  end,  to  set  down  how 
I  understand  my  present  business,  as  follows  : — 

"  I.  To  inform  myself  of  the  measures  taking, 
or  parties  forming,  against  the  Union,  and  apply 
myself  to  prevent  them. 

*'2.  In  conversation  and  by  all  reasonable 
methods  to  dispose  people's  minds  to  the  Union. 

**3.  By  writing  or  discourse,  to  answer  any 
objections,  libels,  or  reflections  on  the  Union,  the 
English,  or  the  Court,  relating  to  the  Union. 


58  ROBERT  HARLEY 

*'  4.  To  remove  the  jealousies  and  uneasiness  of 
people  about  secret  designs  here  against  the  Kirk," 
etc.i 

De  Foe  presently  breaks  away  from  business,  and 
as  usual  concludes  by  a  diffuse  demand  for  money, 
which  he  was  constantly  needing,  and  which  Harley 
ungrudgingly  supplied.  No  man  could  have  done 
his  work  more  zealously  and  effectively.  Not  only 
was  he  a  collector  of  information,  he  was  also  an 
apostle  of  the  Union — he  was  a  modern  diplomat- 
ist and  journalist  in  one.  Through  Harley  his 
letters  reached  the  Lord  Treasurer,  further  proof, 
if  it  were  needed,  that  Godolphin  and  the  Secret- 
ary of  State  were  working  in  harmony  for  a 
common  end  so  far  as  this  particular  measure  was 
concerned. 

**  De  Foe's  letter,"  writes  Godolphin  on  i6th 
January  1707,  *' is  serious  and  deserves  reflection. 
I  believe  it  is  true,  and  it  ought  to  guide  us  very 
much  in  what  we  are  doing  here,  and  to  take  care 
in  the  first  place  to  preserve  the  peace  of  that 
country."^ 

So  closely  united  were  the  fortunes  of  De  Foe 
and  Harley  at  this  time,  that  it  is  convenient  to 
follow  their  intercourse  for  the  next  few  years. 
After  the  completion  of  De  Foe's  mission  to 
Scotland,  Godolphin,  on  Harley 's  persuasion,  was 

*  Harley  Papers^  ii.  327.  ^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  382. 


DE   FOE   DESIRES  EMPLOYMENT     59 

looking  round  for  a  permanent  post  in  which  he 
might  place  him.  At  one  time  there  was  a  ques- 
tion of  an  office  in  the  Customs,  but  nothing  came 
of  it. 

**  I  was  just  on  the  brink  of  returning,"  De  Foe 
writes  to  Harley  in  September  1707,  "when,  like 
life  from  the  dead,  I  received  your  last  with  my 
Lord  Treasurer's  letter.  But  hitherto  his  Lord- 
ship's goodness  to  me  seems  like  messages  from 
an  army  to  a  town  besieged,  that  relief  is  com- 
ing, which  heartens  and  encourages  the  famished 
garrison  but  does  not  feed  them."^  And  on  hope, 
so  far  as  official  employment  was  concerned,  De 
Foe  had,  perhaps  fortunately  for  posterity,  to  feed 
all  his  life.  For  to  his  need  for  money,  as  much  as 
to  his  superabundant  vitality,  we  may  ascribe  the 
many  future  products  of  his  pen. 

As  Harley  s  fall  drew  near,  the  preference  which 
De  Foe  appears  to  have  had  for  him  as  an  employer 
by  no  means  lessened.  On  loth  February  1708  he 
wrote — 

**  The  report  which  fills  the  mouths  of  your 
enemies  of  your  being  no  longer  Secretary  of  State 
alarmed  me  a  little,  I  confess,  and  particularly 
brought  me  to  wait  upon  you  this  night.  Others 
compliment  you  on  the  accession  of  your  good 
fortune ;  I  desire  to  be  the  servant  of  your  worst 

1  Harley  Papers^  ii.  445. 


60  ROBERT   HARLEY 

days.  And  yet,  upon  my  word,  I  know  not  whether 
to  congratulate  or  condole.  I  think  verily  you  are 
delivered  from  a  fatigue  which  never  answered  the 
harassing  you  in  such  a  manner  and  the  wasting 
your  hours  in  the  service  of  those  that  understand 
not  how  to  value  or  reward  in  proportion  to 
merit.  Particularly  you  are  delivered  from  envy, 
and  I  persuade  myself  you  are  removed  from 
a  tottering  party  that  you  may  not  share  in  their 
fall. 

**  My  business  was  only  in  duty  and  gratitude 
to  offer  myself  to  you  against  all  your  enemies. 
My  sphere  is  low,  but  I  distinguish  nobody  when 
I  am  speaking  of  the  ill-treatment  of  one  I  am 
engaged  to,  as  to  you,  in  the  bonds  of  an  inviolable 
duty.  I  entreat  you  to  use  me  in  anything  in 
which  I  may  serve  you,  and  that  more  freely  than 
when  I  might  be  supposed  following  your  rising 
fortunes.  'Tis  also  my  opinion  you  are  still  rising 
— I  wish  you  as  successful  as  I  believe  you  unshaken 
by  this  storm."  1 

De  Foe  was  at  all  times  an  optimist,  and  his 
foresight  and  knowledge  of  public  feeling  enabled 
him  accurately  to  forecast  the  future ;  and  now  he 
saw  that  the  tide  would  presently  turn  in  Harley's 
favour.  Thus  he  could  write  in  this  cheerful  tone. 
And  Harley,  relying  much  on  De  Foe's  opinion, 

^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  477. 


DE   FOE   AND   GODOLPHIN        61 

would  gather  confidence  from  it;  and  so,  looking 
forward,  each  saw  that  in  no  long  time  other 
influences  would  become  powerful,  and  that  a 
temporary  disappearance  from  office  was  but  the 
prelude  to  a  period  of  power. 

But  neither  personal  liking  nor  faith  in  the 
future  prevented  De  Foe,  when  his  patron  retired 
from  office  in  1708,  from  continuing  to  serve 
Godolphin ;  for  neither  he  nor  Harley  had  the 
least  sentiment  about  their  relations.  De  Foe  has 
told  how  Harley,  **in  the  most  engaging  terms," 
allowed  him  to  offer  his  services  to  the  Lord 
Treasurer,  whom  hitherto  he  had  only  served 
through  the  intervention  of  Harley.  The  incident 
illustrates  the  absence  of  bitterness  in  Harley's 
nature.  He  had  been  accused  by  Godolphin  of 
ingratitude  and  treachery,  and  through  his  influence 
he  had  been  compelled  to  resign  his  office.  But 
he  did  not  hesitate  for  a  moment  to  approve  the 
continuance  of  the  ablest  journalist  of  the  time  in 
the  service  of  his  opponent.  Nor,  though  during 
the  intervening  years  of  opposition  De  Foe  had 
been  of  great  service  to  Godolphin,  did  Harley 
in  1 7 10,  when  he  reached  that  supreme  position 
to  which  De  Foe  had  looked  forward,  refuse 
again  to  employ  him.  Nothing  could  be  more 
plausible  or  more  in  keeping  with  his  character 
than  the  letter  which  De  Foe  wrote  at  that  time 
to  Harley. 


62  ROBERT  HARLEY 

*' I  cannot,"  he  says  on  the  12th  of  August 
1 710,  "but  heartily  congratulate  you  on  the  happy 
recovery  of  your  honour  and  trusts  in  the  Govern- 
ment. Her  Majesty  is  particularly  just  in  placing 
you  in  this  station,  where  you  had  been  so  coarsely 
treated.  It  is  with  a  satisfaction  that  I  cannot 
express  that  I  see  you  thus  established  again  ;  and 
it  was  always  with  regret  that  when  you  met  with 
ill-treatment  I  found  myself  left  and  obliged  by 
circumstances  to  continue  in  the  service  of  your 
enemies.  And  now,  though  I  am  sunk  by  the 
change,  and  know  not  yet  whether  I  shall  find  help 
in  it  or  no,  yet  I  not  only  rejoice  in  the  thing,  but 
shall  convince  you  I  do  so,  by  publicly  appearing 
to  defend  and  reconcile  things,  if  possible,  to  open 
the  eyes  of  a  wilfully  blind  and  prejudiced  party. 
In  order  to  this,  I  shall  wait  on  you  in  the  evening 
with  those  sheets  I  showed  you,  finished  from  the 
press,  and  to  lay  before  you  some  measures  I  am 
taking  to  serve  that  honest  principle  which  I  know 
you  espouse,  at  a  time  so  nice  and  when  every  man 
thinks  'tis  in  his  power  to  wound  the  Government 
through  the  sides  of  the  Treasury,  and  to  run  down 
their  masters  by  running  down  the  public  credit. 
I  have  two  or  three  times  set  pen  to  paper  to  move 
you  in  my  own  case,  yet  cannot  put  on  assurance 
enough  to  do  it,  believing  also  your  own  generosity, 
and  the  former  goodness  I  have  had  such  experience 
of,  will  move  you  in  my  behalf. 


DE   FOE'S   SECRET  EMPLOYMENT     63 

"  Providence  seems  to  cast  me  back  upon  you 
(I  write  that  with  joy),  and  lays  me  at  your  door, 
at  the  very  juncture  when  she  blesses  you  with  the 
means  of  doing  for  me  what  your  bounty  shall 
prompt  to. 

**  But  in  recommending  myself  to  you,  I  would 
fain  have  an  eye  to  your  service.  I  would  not  be  an 
invalid,  and  my  hope  is,  that  as  you  were  pleased  to 
recommend  me  to  another  as  one  that  could  be  made 
useful,  and  who  it  was  worth  while  to  encourage, 
the  same  argument  will  move  you  to  entertain  the 
man  yourself,  since  your  merit  and  the  voice  of  the 
nation  places  you  in  the  same  point  in  which  you 
were  pleased  to  present  me  to  another. 

*'  I  cease  to  press  you  on  this  head ;  I  shall 
study  to  make  myself  useful,  and  leave  the  rest 
wholly  to  your  goodness."^ 

*' Useful"  scarcely  expresses  the  value  of  De 
Foe's  services  to  Harley  during  the  next  four  years. 
Useful  he  was  in  the  continuation  of  his  mission 
to  Scotland,  which  was  resumed  in  October,^  but 
extraordinary  in  the  fertility  of  his  financial  and 
practical  suggestions. 

That  the  employment  of  De  Foe  was  not  dis- 
covered by  Harley's  enemies,  is  surprising.    Had  he 

^  Harley  Papers,  ii.  562. 

2  Queries  for  Management,  21st  October  1710,  Harley  Papers,  ii. 
616. 


64  ROBERT   HARLEY 

been  less  ingenious  and  less  bold  it  would  certainly 
have  become  known.  The  secret,  indeed,  nearly 
became  public  in  17 13,  when  De  Foe  published, 
among  other  pamphlets,  one  which  he  called 
Reasons  against  the  Hanover  Succession.  Part  of 
it  was,  he  says,  irony,  the  rest  "clear  and  professed 
banter  upon  the  Pretender."  But  the  irony  was  so 
clever  that  he  now  deceived  the  Whigs,  as  ten  years 
before  he  had  fooled  the  Tories ;  and  proceedings 
on  their  behalf  were  taken  by  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons  named  Benson,  against  its 
author,  on  the  ground  that  the  essay  was  treason- 
able. He  was  brought  before  the  Lord  Chief 
Justice,  but  by  Harley's  management  was  admitted 
to  bail.  His  gratitude  was  extreme,  though  no 
doubt  his  previous  experience  of  Newgate  caused 
him  to  have  a  lively  appreciation  of  Harley's 
intercession. 

**This  is  the  third  time  I  am  rescued  from 
misery  and  a  jail  by  your  generous  and  uncommon 
goodness ;  and  this  is  the  goodness  for  which  the 
gratitude  of  this  age  would  have  me,  against 
principle,  conscience,  honour,  and  gratitude,  maltreat 
and  abuse  you,  and  for  refusing  which  they  fall  upon 
me  in  this  manner.  But  I  am  bound  to  your  Lord- 
ship in  bands  too  strong,  and  am  sure,  unless  God 
and  nature  abandon  me  together,  it  is  impossible 
I  can  forbear  to  serve   your   person  and  interest, 


DE   FOE   PROSECUTED   IN    1713     65 

while  I  live,  at  what  hazard  soever.  I  should  be 
unjust  to  Mr.  Borrett  if  I  did  not  acquaint  you 
that  he  executed  your  orders  so  wisely,  with 
so  much  caution,  so  much  indifference,  and  yet 
with  so  just  an  authority,  that  no  suggestion 
could  be  made  of  his  being  directed,  and  yet 
the  end  was  immediately  answered ;  and  I  was 
set  free,  giving  two  sufficient  bail  for  ;^8oo  and 
myself  ^800."^ 

It  is  one  thing,  however,  to  be  admitted  to  bail, 
another  to  be  acquitted  of  a  charge ;  and  the 
difficulty  before  De  Foe  and  his  patron  was  to 
obtain  an  acquittal  without  revealing  the  connec- 
tion between  them,  which  would  have  diminished 
the  effect  of  De  Foe's  writings,  since  he  always 
posed  as  the  independent  and  untrammelled  ex- 
ponent of  his  own  clear  and  individual  opinions. 
It  is  clear,  too,  that  De  Foe  considered  that  this 
disclosure  would  be  injurious  to  Harley  and  to 
his  Ministry,  as  to  himself. 

**  I.  Their  design  is  aimed  at  your  Lordship 
and  Her  Majesty's  interest,  to  let  the  nation  see 
how  formidable  their  faction  is,  and  that  they 
could  overthrow  any  man  who  dared  oppose 
them  in  spite  of  Her  Majesty's  favour  or  pro- 
tection. 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  282. 
5 


66  ROBERT   HARLEY 

"  2.  They  aim  at  making  a  discovery  to  the 
nation  who  are  or  are  not  in  your  Lordship's 
service,  so  that  their  falling  upon  me  must,  as  they 
thought,  infallibly  answer  their  end  one  way  or 
other ;  for  that  if  the  Ministry  did  not  protect  me, 
they  knew  they  should  oppress  and  sink  me  by  the 
partiality  and  favour  of  my  Lord  Chief  Justice 
(whose  conduct  has  been  really  wonderful  in  it), 
and  if  you  did  protect  me,  then  they  gained  the 
other  point  by  publishing  first  that  I  was  secretly 
entertained  and  employed  by  you,  which  hitherto 
they  have  made  much  noise  of,  but  could  never 
prove ;  and  secondly,  that  your  Lordship  should 
oppose  a  prosecution  which  seemed  to  be  in  behalf 
of  the  house  of  Hanover. 

"  They  have  a  third  end  in  all  this,  viz.  merely 
to  show  an  insult  upon  the  Ministry,  of  which  I 
need  say  no  more  here."  ^ 

But  the  unfailing  ingenuity  of  De  Foe  suggested 
a  means  by  which  he  could  be  both  prosecuted  and 
acquitted.  He  thought  that  a  seeming  prosecution 
might  be  begun,  "only  I  must  depend  upon  your 
Lordship  that  it  be  not  pushed  on,"  he  cautiously 
remarks,  and  then  he  continues — 

**  I.  This  prevents  their  stirring  in  any  separate 
prosecution  effectually. 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  283. 


DE   FOE   OBTAINS   HIS   PARDON     67 

**  2.  The  true  reason  for  not  prosecuting  It  may 
be  want  of  good  evidence,  which  really  will  be 
wanting. 

**  3.  They  have  no  reason  to  examine  why  the 
Government  does  or  does  not  prosecute  after  an 
information  is  laid. 

"All  this  while  I  will  complain  loudly  of  the 
oppression,  I  will  petition  (I  mean  in  print)  to  be 
brought  to  trial,  and  shall  have  abundant  room  to 
expose  them  for  attacking  me  in  a  thing  they  can- 
not make  out;  and  thus  the  pretence  of  being 
protected  by  your  Lordship  or  the  Ministry  will  be 
quite  taken  away. 

**  If  there  is  any  defect  in  this  scheme  which  I 
cannot  foresee,  I  humbly  refer  it  to  your  wisdom  ; 
the  reason  of  my  proposing  it  is  purely  to  disap- 
point them  in  that  part  of  their  malicious  design 
which  is  pointed  at  your  Lordship's  person  and 
administration.  For  there  is  no  doubt  but  having 
a  full  stop  put  to  their  rage  by  your  authority 
would  be  much  more  for  my  safety  as  well  as 
reputation,  particularly  as  it  would  make  them 
cautious  of  falling  upon  me  again ;  but  I  see 
who  this  bullet  is  shot  at,  and  if  they  do  this 
in  the  green  tree,  what  would  they  do  in  the 
dry.^"i 

In  the   result,  though    Harley  was   obliged  to 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  284. 


68  ROBERT   HARLEY 

obtain  for  De  Foe  a  pardon  under  the  Great  Seal, 
their  secret  relations  were  never  discovered. 

His  journeys  over  Scotland  and  England,  the 
interviews  here  and  there,  the  correspondence  with 
London,  would  have  been,  one  might  suppose, 
sufficient  employment  for  De  Foe;  but  this  man, 
incredibly  active  in  mind  and  body,  was  able  at 
the  same  time  to  write  and  to  manage  the  Review 
from  the  17th  of  February  1704  until  July  1713. 
It  appeared  week  by  week,  and  its  small  sheets 
circulated  over  the  whole  of  England.  At  first 
it  was  described  as  *'A  Review  of  the  Affairs  of 
France  and  of  all  Europe  as  influenced  by  that 
Nation,"  and  the  earliest  numbers  were  marked 
by  a  clear  intention  to  impress  on  the  English 
people  the  strength  of  France  and  the  reasons 
for  it.  The  public  must  understand  the  power 
of  the  opponent  with  whom  they  were  at  war; 
there  must  be  no  national  delusions.  Gradually 
De  Foe's  paper  lost  its  historical  tone  and  its 
defined  limits ;  with  its  second  volume  its  title  was 
extended,  and  it  became  a  more  General  Review. 
Unlike  Swift,  who  frankly  avowed  himself  a  Tory, 
De  Foe  always  posed  as  a  non-party  man,  as  a 
patriot.  "  The  cause  of  Liberty  and  the  cause  of 
Truth"  were  what  he  advocated,  and  his  support 
of  Harley  was  so  effective  because  the  writer  and 
the  Minister  had  the  same  ends  in  view.  Yet  the 
skill  with  which,  in  number  after  number  of  the 


DE   FOE'S   WRITINGS  69 

Review,  De  Foe  maintains  this  independent  attitude 
is  remarkable.     That  he  intended  to  advocate  the 
general  policy  of  those  by  whom  he  was  employed 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  and  his  connection  with 
Harley  fortunately  gave   him  the  opportunity  to 
combine  the  support   of  a   patron  with   the  pro- 
mulgation of  his  own  fundamental   ideas.      Party 
peace,  religious  toleration,  purity  of  elections,  were 
Harley 's  objects  as  they  were  his.     De  Foe  was 
a  true  reformer ;  his  keen  vision  saw  the  social 
and    political   faults    of    his    generation,    and   his 
equally  sound  common  sense  suggested  the  reme- 
dies for  them  ;  while  his  energy,  his  imagination, 
and    his    power    of    forcible    yet   homely   literary 
expression  made  him  the  most  effective  and  the 
most    untiring    publicist   of    his    own   or   of    any 
succeeding    age.       For    him,    too,    foreign    trade, 
influenced  as  it  was  by  the  spirit  of  adventure, 
had  an  extraordinary  interest ;  it  appealed  to  his 
practical  sense  as  well  as  to  his  imagination,  as 
we  are  constantly  reminded  in  every  page  of  his 
New    Voyage  round  the    World,      On   this   great 
subject  he  expressed  in  the  Review  more  than  a 
mere  individual  opinion ;  he  represented  the  spirit 
of  the  time,  the  desire  for  commercial  expansion 
which  was  felt  in  every  considerable  city  in  the 
kingdom.     In  May  1713,  shortly  before  the  Review 
ceased  to  appear,  the  Mercator  was  started,  and 
in  this  journal  De  Foe  supported  Harley's  financial 


70  ROBERT   HARLEY 

measures  and  the  commercial  treaty  which  was  to 
follow  that  of  Utrecht.  And  all  this  time  he  was 
issuing  other  works  on  various  subjects,  among 
which  is  conspicuous  the  inimitable  brochure  which 

he    called    Eleven    Opinions    about   Mr,    H -y 

(171 1).     In  it  he  professes  to  give  a  candid  account 
of  the  opinions   of  several   groups   of  politicians 
at  home  and  abroad  ;  but  he  first  skilfully  enlists 
the  sympathy  of  the  reader  with  those  men  whose 
views  were  best  worthy  of  consideration,  such  as 
the  moderate  Dissenters  and  Tories,  and  against 
others,    such    as    the   extremists   of   the   October 
Club.     By  a   simple   statement,    therefore,  of  the 
favourable  view  taken  by  the  former  of  Harley  s 
management  of  public  affairs,   De   Foe  contrives 
to  place  before  the  wavering  or  indifferent  poli- 
tician excellent  reasons  for  supporting  the  Prime 
Minister  and  his  Government.     And  meanwhile, 
with   amazing   energy,    De    Foe  was — It  must  be 
repeated — constantly  travelling  over  England  or  to 
the  north.     Finally,  In  October  1714,  he  published 
The   Secret  History   of  the    White   Staff,    which, 
though  Harley  publicly  disavowed  any  complicity 
in  its  compilation,  was  a  strikingly  able  and  effect- 
ive defence  of  his  patron's  political  conduct. 

It  was  the  last  service  in  that  remarkable 
connection,  for  when,  on  the  death  of  the  Queen, 
the  Whigs  came  into  power,  De  Foe  entered 
into    the    employment   of  the   new   Government. 


DE   FOE   EMPLOYED   BY  WHIGS     71 

Harley  had  ceased  to  be  of  value  as  a  paymaster, 
and  it  was  only  as  such  that  the  late  Prime 
Minister  could  be  of  use  to  De  Foe.  Yet  this 
service  on  the  one  side  and  employment  on  the 
other  are  creditable  to  both  men.  In  the  main, 
De  Foe  advocated  political  and  social  progress, 
religious  freedom  and  personal  moderation.  In 
what  he  said  he  certainly  spoke  his  real  opinions. 
For  what  he  said  he  was  paid  by  Harley  and 
what  he  said  was  approved  of  by  Harley.  De 
Foe,  who  was  Beaumarchais'  equal  as  a  liar,  and 
whom  he  resembled  in  his  versatility,  his  untiring 
energy,  and  his  capacity  as  a  man  of  affairs  and 
of  letters,  on  this  occasion  said  no  more  than  the 
truth  when  he  wrote,  "  It  is  my  great  satisfaction," 
— and  he  is  speaking  here  of  the  contents  of  the 
Review, — "that  what  first  is  founded  on  principle 
and  reason,  agreeable  to  conscience,  equity,  and 
the  good  of  my  country,  ay,  and  to  these  unhappy 
people's  interest  too,  if  they  understood  their 
interest,  is  at  the  same  time  agreeable  to  your 
Lordship,  and  that  while  I  am  rendering  you 
service  I  am  discharging  the  debt  of  justice  to 
truth  and  liberty,  the  great  principle  on  which  I 
hope  I  shall  never  cease  to  act,  and  which,  while 
I  pursue,  I  am  always  and  sure  to  please  and 
oblige  you."^ 

Harley  by  his   long   engagement  of  De  Foe 

^  Harley  Papers,  iii.  213. 


72  ROBERT   HARLEY 

shows  the  value  he  set  on  the  growing  power  of 
journaHsm  ;  indeed,  its  importance  had  been  evi- 
dent to  him  from  the  beginning  of  his  public  life. 
So  early  as  1702,  when  he  was  Speaker,  he  wrote 
to  Godolphin  on  the  subject — 

**  I  .  .  .  again  take  the  liberty  to  offer  to  your 
Lordship  that  it  will  be  of  great  service  to  have 
some  discreet  writer  of  the  Government's  side,  if 
it  were  only  to  state  facts  right ;  for  the  generality 
err  for  want  of  knowledge,  and  being  imposed 
upon  by  the  storys  raised  by  ill  -  designing 
men. 

By  his  patronage  also  of  De  Foe,  Harley 
gave  evidence  of  a  liberalism  of  opinion  that  was 
constantly  hampered  by  a  party  connection  which, 
while  it  enabled  him  to  attain  great  political 
power,  was  at  the  same  time  a  political  anomaly. 
An  example  of  this  conflict  between  inclination 
and  official  necessity  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  a  severe  check  was  placed  on  the  growth  of 
journalism  by  the  newspaper  tax  of  1712^ — a  tax 
which,  while  it  pressed  heavily  on  all  journals, 
did  not  prevent  the  publication  of  the  worst  kind 
of  libels.  Less  than  a  year  after  the  passing  of 
the  measure  by  which  the  duty  was  created,  **  the 

1  Brit.  Mus.  Add.  MSS.,  28055. 
^  10  Anne,  c.  xix.  s.  loi,  July  1712. 


DE   FOE   AS   JOURNALIST  73 

unparalleled  licentiousness  of  the  Press  in  publish- 
ing seditious  and  scandalous  libels "  was  referred 
to  in  the  speech  from  the  Throne — evidence  of 
the  ineffectiveness  of  the  tax  for  the  purpose  for 
which  it  was  created.  If  Swift  is  to  be  believed, 
Bolingbroke  was  the  author  of  the  measure,  though 
Harley  must  necessarily  have  consented  to  it, 
since  it  is  incorporated  in  a  statute  which  deals 
with  the  whole  question  of  the  revenue.  En- 
deavouring probably  to  meet  the  wishes  of  the 
Queen  and  of  Parliament,  he  agreed  to  legislation 
which,  while  it  added  to  the  revenue,  would  have 
little  effect — he  may  have  thought — in  curtailing 
the  influence  of  the  Press,  upon  which  he  set  so 
high  a  value. 

For,  while  the  attention  of  politicians  great  or 
small  was  fixed  on  the  intrigues  which  were  carried 
on  in  London,  and  on  personal  rivalries  and  am- 
bitions, Harley  throughout  his  career  had  ever  in 
mind  the  mass  of  his  countrymen.  By  means  of 
De  Foe's  writings  he  appealed  during  nearly  all 
his  official  life  to  their  common  sense  —  for  De 
Foe's  journalism  differed  entirely  from  the  malicious 
party  squibs  which  delighted  the  coffee-houses  of 
London  and  ridiculed  the  personal  peculiarities  of 
eminent  men.  It  was  a  legitimate  and  a  new  way 
to  influence  public  opinion ;  for  before  De  Foe 
came  into  Harley 's  employment  there  had  never 
been  a   really  consecutive   publication   of  printed 


74  ROBERT  HARLEY 

arguments  addressed  to  the  common  sense  of 
the  whole  of  England,  and  the  Lord  Treasurer 
could  never  have  sanctioned  either  the  manner  or 
the  reasonings  of  De  Foe  without  a  robust  belief 
in  the  force  of  democratic  opinion  even  in  an  age 
when  votes  were  often  bought  and  sold  like  parcels 
of  goods. 

Important  and  noteworthy  event,  however,  in  the 
history  of  English  journalism,  as  is  the  connection 
between  Harley  and  De  Foe  from  1703  to  1714, 
it  is  the  unique  personality  of  De  Foe  which  stands 
forth  most  vividly  during  this  period.  This  was 
the  memorable  climax  of  his  strenuous  life.  His 
correspondence  with  Harley  recalls  De  Foe  at  this 
time  very  clearly — we  can  see  the  spare  man,  with 
the  hardy  brown  complexion  and  clear  grey  eyes 
and  the  hawklike  nose,  active,  untiring,  and  fear- 
less, arguing  with  a  Scotsman,  expostulating  with  a 
Dissenter,  smiling  at  a  country  vicar,  always  full 
of  hope,  and  always  wanting  money,  perpetually 
journeying  from  place  to  place,  and  when  most  men 
would  have  rested,  only  varying  his  labour,  writing 
—  with  a  mind  ever  fertile  in  expedient  and 
suggestion — voluminous  letters  to  Harley,  or,  with 
an  interest  which  never  flagged,  preparing  a  new 
number  of  the  Review. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SECRETARY   OF  STATE 
1705-1708 

Difference  of  Godolphin's  and  Harley's  Views— Godol- 
phin's  Alliance  with  the  Whigs  —  Result  on  Harley's 
Position— The  Drawback  Bill— Increasing  Coolness  be- 
tween  Harley  and  Godolphin— The  Queen  and  Church 
Patronage— Accentuation  of  Differences  between  Harley 
AND  Godolphin  —  Harley's  Resignation  of  Office  — His 
Definite  Alliance  with  the  Tories. 

THE  last  three  years  of  Harley's  term  of  office 
as  Secretary  of  State  form  an  interesting 
period  in  his  life,  for  during  it  there  is  to  be 
observed  in  him  a  noticeable  political  develop- 
ment. From  an  administrator  and  a  leading 
member  of  the  House  of  Commons  he  gradually 
became  the  chief  of  one  of  the  two  great  parties 
in  the  State.  Wanting  though  he  did  some 
conspicuous  and  brilliant  qualities  which  attract 
popular  notice,  this  development  could  not  have 
come  to  pass  without  personal  traits  which  are  by 
no  means  common — patience,  courage,  a  capacity 
to  utilise  opportunity,  and  an  unfailing  tact.  Most 
men  would  have  hesitated  to  differ  from  so  astute 
a  politician  as  Godolphin,  to  oppose  so  bitter  and 

75 


7Q  ROBERT   HARLEY 

capable  a  group  as  the  Junto  which  governed  the 
Whigs  ;  few  would  have  perceived  so  clearly  the 
strength  which  could  be  gained  by  an  alliance  with 
the  Queen,  or  would  have  been  willing  and  able 
to  undertake  the  irksome  and  delicate  task  of 
securing  and  retaining  her  confidence. 

The  elections  of  1705  had  resulted  in  favour 
of  the  Whigs,  and  to  this  fact  is  undoubtedly  due 
the  first  differences  between  Harley  and  the  Lord 
Treasurer,  which  are  visible  in  the  spring  of  1 706, 
when  a  distinct  cleavage  of  their  views  upon  an 
important  point  of  parliamentary  support  occurred. 
The  Queen's  servants,  Godolphin  states  in  a  letter 
to  Harley  (the  22nd  of  March),^  numbered  100  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  the  Tories  190,  and  the 
Whigs  160.  Then,  asked  the  Lord  Treasurer, 
was  it  the  best  course  to  rely  on  the  Whigs,  who 
had  been  supporting  the  Administration,  or  on 
the  Tories,  who  were  apparently  adverse  to  it } 
He  decided  that  Ministers  should  keep  the  160 
and  rely  on  obtaining  some  stragglers  from  the  190, 
who,  when  "they  found  themselves  disappointed, 
would  willingly  make  a  little  fair  weather  again." 

In  other  words,  Godolphin  now  threw  himself 
distinctly  on  to  the  side  of  the  Whigs.  But  Harley 
had  joined  the  Cabinet  inclining  to  the  Tories. 
He  well  knew  that  the  Queen  had  a  personal  pre- 
ference for  them,  and  though  he  was  always  longing 

^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  291. 


godolphi:n  and  harley      n 

to  follow  a  middle  course,  the  decision  of  Godolphin 
rendered  it  necessary  for  him  to  gain  some  of 
that  influence  with  the  Queen  which  Godolphin 
would  surely  lose.  To  hope  for  the  support  of 
any  Tories  at  all  he  must  henceforth  act  to  some 
extent  in  opposition  to  the  Lord  Treasurer,  whose 
determination  clearly  gave  Harley  the  opportunity 
of  becoming  for  the  time  being  the  parliamentary 
head  of  the  Tory  party.  In  a  sense,  therefore, 
he  was  unwillingly  forced  to  oppose  his  chief,  and 
he  was  certain  to  incur  the  enmity  of  the  Whigs 
if  he  would  not  in  fact  become,  as  did  Godolphin, 
an  ally  of  their  party.  He  would  have  preferred 
to  have  remained  in  the  Cabinet  as  a  moderate 
Tory,  but  the  course  of  strategy  determined  on 
by  Godolphin  forced  him  to  defend  his  position, 
and  ultimately  led  to  his  dismissal  from  office. 
If  he  had  followed  the  practice  of  more  recent 
times,  Harley  would  in  1706  have  handed  his 
resignation  to  the  Prime  Minister,  but  the  modern 
parliamentary  and  party  system  was  then  in  its 
infancy,  and  Harley  acted  in  consonance  with  the 
ideas  of  the  age. 

But  while  Godolphin's  decision  forced  Harley 
to  adopt  an  attitude  in  the  Cabinet  adverse  to  his 
chief,  it  is  not  clear  that  he  took  any  steps  actively 
hostile  to  him.  The  Drawback  Bill  of  1707  has 
been  regarded  as  an  instance  of  Harley's  disloyalty 
to  the  Lord  Treasurer ;  it  may  have  been  an  error 


78  ROBERT   HARLEY 

of  judgment  in  him  to  introduce  it,  but  certainly 
it  was  an  honest  attempt  to  check  what  Godolphin's 
biographer  has  called  a  ''fraudulent  and  mischiev- 
ous" transaction,  though  one  which  in  these  days 
appears  perfectly  legitimate. 

By  the  Act  of  Union,  the  articles  of  which 
were  signed  in  February  1706,  there  was  to  be 
free  trade  between  England  and  Scotland  from 
I  St  May  1707.  Meanwhile  the  import  duties  were 
lower  in  Scotland  than  in  England ;  it  was  there- 
fore the  most  natural  and  business-like  thing  in 
the  world  for  goods,  as  soon  as  the  substance  of 
the  Union  became  known,  to  be  imported  in  large 
quantities  into  Scotland,  with  a  view  to  their  sub- 
sequent transmission  free  of  duty  across  the  border. 
But  these  transactions  aroused  the  jealousy  of 
English  merchants,  and  were  mentioned  by  De 
Foe  in  the  spring  of  1 707  both  to  Godolphin  and 
to  Harley ;  for  De  Foe,  placed  in  Scotland  to 
watch  the  progress  of  events,  and  to  assist  the 
cause  of  the  Union,  overlooked  no  detail,  however 
slight,  which  had  the  least  bearing  on  the  moment- 
ous matter  which  was  before  the  two  countries. 
The  introduction  by  Harley  of  a  Bill  to  prevent 
the  importation  of  goods  into  Scotland  with  a  view 
to  their  evasion  of  the  English  duties  immediately 
followed,^  and  it  was  under  discussion  at  so  late 
a  period  in  the   session   as   the   month  of  April 

1  Pari,  Hist.,  vi.  58a 


THE  DRAWBACK  BILL   OF   1707     79 

that  a  clause  was  inserted  by  Harley  to  give  it  a 
retro-active  effect.  Having  regard  to  the  hostiHty 
felt  by  many  Scotsmen  to  the  proposed  Union, 
and  to  the  extraordinary  sensitiveness  for  the  time 
being  of  the  Scottish  people,  Harley 's  measure  was 
clearly  impolitic.  He  was  always  on  the  watch 
for  the  movements  of  public  opinion,  and  well 
served  though  he  was  by  De  Foe,  the  expostula- 
tions of  English  merchants,  who  were  near,  pro- 
bably impressed  him  more  than  the  hostility  of 
the  Scotch,  who  were  at  a  distance. 

"  I  must,"  said  De  Foe,  writing  after  the  Bill  had 
been  put  an  end  to  by  the  closing  of  the  session, 
**  if  Parliament  had  not  dropped  the  Drawback  Bill, 
have  fled  this  country.  It  is  scarce  possible  to 
describe  to  you  the  disgust  that  affair  gave  here."^ 
Nor  did  Godolphin  himself  assert  his  authority  to 
stop  the  measure ;  he  regarded  it  as  unwise  and 
nothing  more.  **  I  have  seen  the  clause,"  he  says, 
certainly  referring  to  the  retrospective  section, 
"and  think  it  in  some  particulars  impracticable 
and  in  others  unreasonable,  and  so  I  believe  it 
will  be  thought  in  the  House  of  Lords,  but  how 
you  will  be  able  to  deal  with  it  in  your  House 
I  cannot  judge."  ^ 

For  the  Lord  Treasurer  to  allow  the  Bill  to 
proceed  at  all  was  in  some  respects  to  countenance 
it,  but  we  must  remember  that  ministerial  responsi- 

^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  407.  *  Harley  Papers^  ii.  415. 


80  KOBERT   HARLEY 

bility  was  not  understood  then  as  in  later  years, 
and  just  as  Godolphin  did  not  put  his  veto  on  the 
Bill  directly,  though  he  disapproved  of  it,  so  Harley 
did  not  cease  to  press  it  because  his  chief  objected 
to  it.  Under  these  circumstances  it  is  scarcely 
justifiable  or  reasonable  now  to  charge  a  statesman 
with  disloyalty  to  a  colleague.  Harley  certainly 
considered  he  was  acting  for  the  best  in  bringing 
in  his  Bill,^  and  as  certainly  underrated  the  hostility 
it  would  arouse  in  Scotland.  He  behaved  as  one 
would  expect  from  his  character  and  career,  with 
an  absence  of  the  larger  outlook  of  the  statesman, 
and  was  actuated  by  the  motives  of  a  punctilious 
parliamentary  financier. 

It  was  a  natural  result  of  the  fundamental  dif- 
ference between  the  policy  of  Godolphin  and  of 
Harley,  a  difference  as  visible  to  the  one  as  to 
the  other,^  that  Harley  should  (1707)  resist  the 
appointment  of  Sunderland  as  Secretary  of  State 
in  place  of  the  Tory  Sir  Charles  Hedges.  And  it 
also  followed  that  subsequently  he  should  oppose 
Godolphin  in  a  further  alliance  with  the  Whigs. 

^  See  Harley's  letter  of  explanation  to  De  Foe,  Harley  Papers^ 
ii.  418. 

2  "  The  concern  you  express  in  the  close  of  your  letter  is  very 
agreeable,  and  but  due  to  what  you  could  not  but  observe  in  me.  I 
never  had,  nor  ever  can  have,  a  thought  of  your  being  out  of  the 
Queen's  service  while  I  am  in  it ;  but  I  am  as  sure  I  neither  desire  nor 
am  able  to  continue  in  it,  unless  we  can  agree  upon  the  measures  by 
which  she  is  to  be  served  both  at  home  and  abroad." — Godolphin  to 
Harley,  i8th  September  1707,  Longleat  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.  Com., 
p.  182. 


HARLEY'S  POLICY  IN   1707         81 

''The  Queen,"  he  wrote  to  the  Lord  Treasurer 
in  1707,  **is  the  centre  of  union.  I  dread  the 
thought  of  running  from  the  extreme  of  one  faction 
to  another,  which  is  the  natural  consequence  of 
party  tyranny."  ^  This  being  the  position  of  the 
Queen,  it  was  Harley's  object  to  strengthen  himself 
with  her,  and  to  fortify  her  in  her  personal  objec- 
tion to  the  Whigs.  We  may  call  this  ''caballing" 
if  we  like — in  truth  it  was  the  conflict  of  opposing 
policies  in  the  same  Cabinet  conducted  according 
to  the  ideas  of  the  age.  Which  of  the  two  policies 
was  the  safest  it  is  not  easy  to  judge.  Little  as 
Harley  liked  the  war,  the  time  had  not  yet  come  to 
oppose  it  openly,  and  a  good  understanding  with 
the  Tories  did  not  therefore  involve  an  active  policy 
of  peace.  Marlborough,  desiring  support  from  all 
sides  and  looking  only  to  the  successful  conduct 
of  the  war,  was  a  somewhat  lukewarm  believer  in 
Godolphin's  policy,  and  there  was  this  strong  point 
in  favour  of  Harley's  view,  the  Queen  was  so 
adverse  to  the  Whigs,  so  much  depended  on  her 
personal  favour,  that  her  preference  for  the  Tories 
was  an  influence  which  would  go  far  to  give 
stability  to  an  Administration  chiefly  composed 
of  the  members  of  that  party.  In  Harley's  opinion, 
whatever  temporary  strength  Godolphin  obtained 
by  an  alliance  with  the  Whigs  was  more  than 
counterbalanced   by   the   favour    he    thereby   lost 

1  Coxe's  Marlboroughy  iii.  394. 


82  ROBERT   HARLEY 

with  the  Queen,  and  with  all  the  Tories,  whether 
extremists  or  moderates.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  determination  of  the  Whig  peers  to  obtain 
power  was  so  fixed  and  persistent,  and  the  party 
was  so  strong,  united,  and  well  organised,  that  their 
influence  was  a  factor  which  could  not  be  neglected. 
It  was  a  dilemma  which  might  well  puzzle  the 
acutest  politician. 

But  this  difference  of  opinion  between  the  Lord 
Treasurer  and  his  Secretary  of  State  necessarily 
caused  all  the  efforts  and  the  enmity  of  the 
Whigs  to  be  directed  against  Harley.  At  the 
moment  when  they  had  overcome  Godolphin,  it 
appeared  as  if  another  statesman  might  unex- 
pectedly and  effectually  bar  their  way  to  power. 
Anger  was  not  unmixed  with  fear,  for  an  intimacy 
had  arisen  between  Harley  and  Abigail  Hill, 
who  had  supplanted  the  Duchess  of  Marlborough 
as  the  favourite  and  the  friend  of  the  Queen. 
They  believed  that  Harley 's  influence  with  Anne 
had  enabled  him  successfully  to  oppose  Godolphin 
and  Marlborough,  when  the  Sees  of  Chester  and 
Exeter  became  vacant  in  1707,  and  to  induce  the 
Queen  to  fill  them  with  High  Churchmen.  But 
Church  patronage  was  the  thing  above  all  others 
on  which  the  Queen  exercised  her  own  judgment, 
and  her  inclination  was  distinctly  in  favour  of  the 
High  Church  party.  In  this  instance,  considered 
at  the  time  by  the  Whigs  as  certain  evidence  of 


CONTEST   WITH   THE  JUNTO       83 

Harley's  influence  with  the  Queen,  there  is  not 
the  smallest  doubt  that  she  acted  entirely  on  her 
own  opinion.  But  the  importance  attached  by 
them  to  these  appointments,  and  their  unconcealed 
anger,  reveals  the  true  nature  of  the  contest.  The 
Junto  were  determined  to  obtain  the  government 
of  the  country,  and  to  gain  complete  mastery  over 
Anne,  regardless  alike  of  her  feelings  and  her 
situation.  The  little  knowledge  of  human  nature 
shown  by  the  Junto,  by  Marlborough,  and  by 
Godolphin  at  this  crisis,  is  surprising.  It  was  to 
the  conspicuous  absence  of  kindness  and  common 
sense  in  their  relations  with  the  Queen  on  the 
part  of  his  opponents  that  to  some  extent  the 
success  of  Harley  in  1710  was  due.  But  now 
Marlborough  and  Godolphin,  having  capitulated 
to  the  Junto,  any  person  who  advised  the  Queen 
contrary  to  their  wishes  or  interests,  was  neces- 
sarily opposing  both  the  Minister  and  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief. That  Harley  was  endeavouring 
at  this  time  to  supplant  Godolphin  as  Lord 
Treasurer  there  is  no  satisfactory  evidence,  and 
it  is  certain  that  he  had  no  intention  of  superseding 
Marlborough.  As  Secretary  of  State,  Harley  held 
a  high  and  laborious  office.  He  was  not  a  man  of 
burning  ambition,  and  he  might  with  reason  look 
forward  to  still  higher  honours  in  the  normal  course 
of  a  tranquil  official  career.  He  would  have  been 
content  had  Godolphin  remained  in  office,  relying 


84  ROBERT  HARLEY 

on  the  goodwill  of  the  Queen  and  on  the  moderate 
Whigs  and  Tories.  That  he  was  trying  to  form 
some  kind  of  combination  against  the  Junto  is 
certain,  but  it  was  a  combination  not  against 
Marlborough  and  Godolphin  personally,  but  against 
the  group  of  peers  who  had  captured  them.  Oppo- 
sition to  this  band  of  aristocrats  became  opposition 
to  Godolphin,  and  produced  that  outburst  of  feeling 
to  which  he  gave  way  in  his  final  letter  to  Harley.^ 

^  On  17th' September  1707,  Harley  wrote  to  Godolphin  to  deny 
that  he  was  acting  against  him  and  that  he  had  "directly  or 
indirectly  "  taken  part  in  the  appointment  of  the  Bishops  of  Chester 
and  Exeter  (Somerville's  Queen  A?ine^  p.  626,  and  Longleat  MSS.)- 

On  i8th  September,  in  reply  (Longleat  MSS.),  Godolphin, 
evidently  hoping  for  a  reconciliation,  tells  him  that  "  I  never  had, 
nor  ever  can  have,  a  thought  of  your  being  out  of  the  Queen's  service 
while  I  am  in  it." 

On  5th  December  an  interview  took  place  (Somerville,  p.  626). 

On  30th  January  ,1708,  Harley  wrote  the  following  letter  to  Go- 
dolphin (Somerville,  p.  628,  and  Longleat  MSS.)  : — 

"Last  night  Mr.  Attorney  acquainted  me  that  I  was  fallen  into 
your  Lordship's  displeasure — he  would  not  tell  me  any  particulars. 
This  I  could  not  but  receive  with  the  utmost  grief,  and  had  it  not 
been  so  late  I  had  given  your  Lordship  the  trouble  of  a  letter  to 
desire  leave  to  call  upon  you  to  clear  myself.  This  morning  my 
Lord  of  Marlborough  gave  me  permission  to  attend  him  upon  a  like 
occasion,  and  her  Grace  was  pleased  to  tell  me  the  particulars.  I  know 
it  is  impossible  to  v/ard  against  misrepresentations  and  misconstruc- 
tions, or  the  application  of  things  said  generally  to  a  particular 
purpose,  which  was  never  thought  of ;  for  I  do  solemnly  protest  I 
never  entertained  the  least  thought  derogating  from  your  Lordship 
or  prejudicial  to  your  interest.  I  am  confident  in  my  own  innocency, 
and  I  know  no  better  way  to  clear  myself  than  to  desire  your  Lordship 
will  let  me  by  my  actions  demonstrate  the  sincerity  of  my  intention 
and  my  zeal  and  duty  for  your  Lordship's  person  and  service." 

To  this  letter  Godolphin  replied  apparently  on  the  same  day — 

"  I  have  received  your  letter  and  am  very  sorry  for  what  has 
happened,  to  lose  the  good  opinion  I  had  so  much  inclination  to 


HARLEY  AND   THE   QUEEN        85 

In  his  belief  in  the  importance  of  the  goodwill  of 
the  Queen  to  the  Administration  Harley  was  right  ; 
his  mistake  lay  in  overestimating  the  power  of  the 
Crown  alone.  Without  a  majority  on  her  side  in 
Parliament,  and  without  the  support  of  the  country, 
the  Queen  could  not  effectually  oppose  the  Junto  ; 
and  at  present  that  necessary  majority  and  that 
popular  support  did  not  exist. 

Fortune,  too,  favoured  his  opponents.    A  wholly 
unexpected  and  abnormal  incident  placed  Harley 

have  of  you,  but  I  cannot  help  seeing  nor  believing  my  seniors.  I 
am  very  far  from  having  deserved  it  from  you.  God  forgive  you  " 
(Somerville,  p.  528,  and  Longleat  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.  Com.,  p.  190). 

Against  Harley's  letter  of  30th  January  has  to  be  set  Swift's 
letter  to  Archbishop  King  of  12th  February.  This  letter  contains 
gossip  and  hearsay  only,  and  must  therefore  be  critically  considered  ; 
the  statements  in  it  can  only  be  reconciled  with  Harley's  assertions 
by  assuming,  which  is  probable,  that  an  attempt  to  modify  Godol- 
phin's  ministry  was  exaggerated  into  an  attempt  to  supersede  the 
Lord  Treasurer. 

''i2th  Feb.  1707-8. 

"...  Mr.  Harley  had  been  some  time,  with  the  greatest  art 
imaginable,  carrying  on  an  intrigue  to  alter  the  Ministry,  and  began 
with  no  less  an  enterprise  than  that  of  removing  the  Lord  Treasurer, 
and  had  nearly  effected  it  by  the  help  of  Mrs.  Masham,  one  of  the 
Queen's  dressers,  who  was  a  great  and  growing  favourite,  of  much 
industry  and  insinuation.  It  went  so  far  that  the  Queen  told  Mr.  St. 
John  a  week  ago  'that  she  was  resolved  to  part  with  Lord  Treasurer,' 
and  sent  him  with  a  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  which  she 
read  to  him  to  that  purpose  ;  and  she  gave  St.  John  leave  to  tell  it 
about  the  town,  which  he  did  without  any  reserve,  and  Harley  told  a 
friend  of  mine  a  week  ago  that  he  was  never  safer  in  favour  or 
employment.  ...  It  is  said  that  Harley  had  laid  a  scheme  for  an 
entire  new  Ministry,  and  the  men  are  named  to  whom  the  several 
employments  were  to  be  given  ;  and  though  his  project  has  miscarried, 
it  is  reckoned  the  greatest  piece  of  Court  skill  that  has  been  acted  these 
many  years  "  (Swift's  Works,  edited  by  Scott,  2nd  ed.  vol.  xv.  p.  287). 


86  ROBERT  HARLEY 

at  too  great  a  disadvantage  for  the  time  being  to 
withstand  them.  He  had  in  his  office  a  clerk 
named  William  Greg,  who  entered  into  corre- 
spondence with  Chamillart,  the  French  Secretary 
of  State.  One  of  the  packets  which  contained 
a  communication  from  Greg  was  opened  in 
Holland,  and  his  treason  was  discovered.  On 
being  examined  before  the  Privy  Council,  he  at 
once  acknowledged  his  guilt,  and  on  the  i6th  of 
January  was  convicted  of  high  treason  at  the  Old 
Bailey.  Greg's  position  was  such  as  to  afford 
ample  grounds  in  the  age  of  Anne  for  the  circu- 
lation of  the  worst  suggestions  against  Harley. 
He  was  more  than  a  mere  clerk.  His  kinsman, 
Hugh  Greg,  was  English  Resident  at  Copenhagen 
from  1693  to  1702,  during  the  latter  part  of  which 
time  William  Greg  acted  as  his  secretary.  He 
was  still  in  Denmark  after  this  date,  but  in  1705 
**  he  was  out  of  business,"  as  he  says,  referring 
in  a  letter  to  Harley  to  an  offer  of  a  tutorship — 

"  Twenty  pounds  a  year  did  surprise  me,  yet 
when  the  meanness  of  my  circumstances  would 
have  tempted  me  to  close  with  his  Lordship's 
conditions,  prudence  bade  me  stay  and  try 
whether  your  Honour  could  not  better  my  fortune, 
which  I  should  look  upon  as  desperate  were  it  not 
in  so  good  hands."  ^ 

^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  159. 


HARLEY  AND   GREG  87 

Later  we  find  him  writing  from  Scotland ; 
evidently  sent  to  the  north  partly  as  a  spy, 
partly  as  a  diplomatist.  Then  he  became  poorer, 
and  Harley  probably  placed  him  in  his  office  merely 
for  the  purpose  of  retaining  him  in  his  service 
until  he  was  again  needed  as  a  spy.  It  is  certain, 
also,  that  it  was  Greg's  poverty  which  caused  him 
to  disclose  confidential  papers  to  the  French.  In 
a  memorandum  of  his  examination  before  the  Privy 
Council,  in  Harley  s  handwriting,  there  is,  amongst 
other  statements,  one  that  Greg  was  to  receive  a 
hundred  guineas  for  a  particular  piece  of  informa- 
tion. It  is  equally  clear  that  strong  attempts  were 
made  to  cause  Greg  to  reveal  something  adverse 
to  Harley,  but  wholly  without  success ;  and  in  an 
account  of  his  execution,  sent  to  Harley  by  another 
confidential  clerk,  named  Thomas,  Greg's  state- 
ment on  the  scaffold  is  repeated,  that  Harley  was 
''perfectly  innocent"  of  any  knowledge  of  the 
treasonable  correspondence. 

We  can  thus  clearly  see  how  Greg  came  to  his 
position  in  1708,  how  he  was  enabled  to  obtain 
the  information  which  he  sold  to  France,  and  how 
suspicions  could  grow  against  his  employer.  The 
system  of  espionage  is  sometimes  double-edged, 
and  Harley  on  this  occasion  fell  a  victim  to  his  own 
use  of  it.  The  agent  in  this  instance  was  dishonest, 
so  the  master  had  to  suffer.  The  risk  of  such 
treachery  was  not  as  great  as  one  would  expect 


88  ROBERT   HARLEY 

where  so  much  dishonesty  was  rife,  for  one  spy 
was  under  the  eye  of  another.  But  what  at  other 
times  would  have  been  a  mere  political  mischance, 
happening  when  it  did,  was  sufficient  to  oblige 
Harley  to  retire  from  official  life. 

The  dramatic  events  of  those  early  February 
days  have  often  been  told :  how  Godolphin  and 
Marlborough  resigned  their  offices  rather  than 
continue  in  an  Administration  with  Harley  ;  how  the 
Duchess  with  tears  in  her  eyes  placed  her  resigna- 
tion also  in  the  Queen's  hands;  and  how  at  the 
Cabinet  Council  on  the  8th  of  February,  neither 
Godolphin  nor  Marlborough  being  present,  the 
Duke  of  Somerset  protested  against  the  transaction 
of  business,  and  the  Queen  thereupon  hastily  broke 
up  the  Council.  Few  scenes  are  sadder  than  some 
of  the  incidents  in  the  repeated  and  dangerous 
crises  which  marked  the  reign  of  Anne.  They 
demanded  of  the  sovereign  courage,  sagacity,  and 
resolution  ;  they  had  to  be  encountered  by  a  woman 
who  was  most  unfitted  to  play  a  part  among  the 
ambitions  and  the  intrigues  of  a  singularly  critical 
and  unique  historical  period.  For  Anne,  with  the 
best  intentions,  was  unfitted  to  her  position.  What 
a  misfortune  for  a  woman,  born  to  enjoy  a  quiet 
domestic  existence,  to  be  called  to  cope  with  a 
destiny  to  which  she  was  wholly  unequal!  Her 
simple  character  and  homely  tastes,  her  good 
intentions  and  her  religious  faith,  would  have  made 


HARLEY'S   RESIGNATION  89 

the  Queen  a  happy  and  a  useful  English  lady. 
Instead,  in  her  high  position  she  was  beset  by 
troubles  and  perplexities,  and  was  helpless  and 
lonely  amidst  difficulties  which  would  have  tried 
the  clearest  mind. 

On  the  9th  it  was  resolved  by  the  House  of 
Lords  to  appoint  a  Committee  ^  to  examine  Greg, 
in  the  hope  of  obtaining  from  him  information  on 
which  to  base  a  charge  of  high  treason  against 
Harley.  This  was  a  distinct  declaration  of  active 
hostility  against  him,  and  shows  the  lengths  to 
which  the  enmity  of  party  could  be  carried.  On 
the  nth,  bowing  before  the  storm,  he  placed  his 
resignation  in  the  hands  of  an  unwilling  sovereign.^ 
It  was  a  party  triumph  for  the  Whigs,  and  a 
personal  victory  for  Godolphin  and  Marlborough, 
but  a  victory  which  presently  hastened  Godolphin's 
downfall,  partly  from  the  individual  strength  of 
the  dismissed  Minister,  and  partly  because  it  consoli- 
dated against  the  Lord  Treasurer  adverse  elements 
at  a  most  inopportune  moment,  and  gave  to  his 
opponents  in  Parliament,  at  Court,  and  in  the 
country,  a  leader  in  the  prime  of  life,  more 
capable  at  the  instant  than  any  other  statesman 
of  conducting  an  active  opposition  to  a  success- 
ful end,  and  of  taking  advantage  of  the  change 

^  This  Committee,  which  consisted  of  seven  Whig  peers,  reported 
that  there  was  no  evidence  to  show  that  Harley  had  been  guilty  of 
any  treasonable  practices. 

2  Burnett,  td.  Dartfnouth  and  Hardwicke,  v.  354. 


90  ROBERT   HARLEY 

in  popular  feeling  which  was  now  approaching. 
For  Godolphin  the  loss  of  Harley  was  something 
more  than  a  political  misfortune,  for  it  deprived 
him  not  only  of  a  colleague  who  had  relieved 
him  from  much  official  labour,  with  whom  for 
the  last  four  years  he  had  been  on  terms  of  the 
closest  intimacy,  and  who  with  Marlborough  alone 
shared  his  confidence ;  but  it  left  him,  becoming 
weak  in  health  and  surrounded  with  ever-growing 
difficulties,  to  carry  on  his  administration  in  painful 
isolation. 

These  events  not  only  threw  Harley  into  a  close 
political  association  with  the  Tory  party,  but  into 
intimate  personal  relations  with  all  the  members 
of  it.  From  that  moment  he  became  one  of  the 
remarkable  group  of  which  the  Court  of  Anne  was 
the  centre  —  intriguing  women  and  able  men  of 
letters,  statesmen,  placemen,  and  divines,  to  whom, 
from  opinion  and  from  self-interest,  the  Whigs 
were  detestable,  and  who,  often  jealous  and  sus- 
picious of  each  other,  were  united  by  a  common 
dislike  of  the  Junto,  Nonconformists,  and  monied 
men.  Once  included  in  it,  Harley  was  thence- 
forward bound  to  the  Tory  party  by  ties  which 
were  as  strong  as  political  principles,  and  by  daily 
associations  which  the  longer  they  continued  the 
more  surely  caused  his  permanent  separation  from 
men  with  whom  he  was  often  more  in  political 
sympathy    than    with    those    by    whom    he    was 


FINAL  CONNECTION  WITH  TORIES  91 

surrounded.  That  under  these  circumstances  he 
should  become  more  reticent,  and  more  enigmatical 
in  his  words,  is  not  surprising,  since  he  could 
scarcely  express  a  sincere  opinion  without  offend- 
ing a  colleague  or  his  sovereign. 


CHAPTER   V 

IN  OPPOSITION 

1708-1710 

Growing  Arrogance  of  the  Whigs— Increasing  Strength 
OF  THE  Tories  and  Clergy— Harley  and  Mrs.  Masham— 
Revolt  of  the  Queen  against  the  Whigs— Dismissal  of 
GoDOLPHiN— Harley  appointed  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer—Harley's  Political  Position. 

OF  opposition  by  Harley  to  Godolphin's  admin- 
istration in  the  modern  parliamentary  sense 
of  the  word,  there  is  no  appearance  during  the  next 
two  years.  Yet  unquestionably  during  this  period 
he  was  becoming  more  decidedly  opposed  to  the 
war  policy  to  which  the  Lord  Treasurer  was  com- 
mitted, and  was  patiently  and  quietly,  but  none  the 
less  effectively,  preparing  the  way  for  a  change  of 
Government.  His  action  was  based,  however,  not 
on  modern  parliamentary  lines,  on  open  attacks  on 
the  Ministry  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  on 
appeals  to  the  electors,  but  on  the  use  of  the 
personal  predilections  of  the  sovereign,  a  course 
of  action  which  to  a  great  degree  was  successful, 
because,  for  the  moment,  the  wishes  of  the  Queen 
harmonised  with  the  feeling  of  her  people. 

92 


COURSE   OF  EVENTS,   1708-1710     93 

The  course  of  events  from  1708  to  17 10  as  they 
affect  Harley's  life  is  clear,  though  it  has  been 
clouded  by  personal  intrigues.  The  war  had 
continued  for  a  long  time,  and  was  rapidly  becoming 
more  and  more  unpopular.  The  Whigs  knew  that 
Marlborough  and  Godolphin  must  rely  on  them 
as  long  as  they  supported  it,  and  they  became 
in  consequence  bolder  and  more  arrogant.  They 
held  the  balance  of  power  in  the  Cabinet,  but  with 
this  they  were  not  satisfied.  They  were  constantly 
seeking  for  greater  influence — and  not  unsuccess- 
fully— as  in  1709,  when  Lord  Orford  was  placed  at 
the  head  of  the  Board  of  Admiralty.  The  position 
of  Godolphin  had  thus  become  extremely  humiliat- 
ing and  altogether  vexatious.  Each  success  of  the 
Whigs  alienated  the  Queen  more  from  the  Lord 
Treasurer,  producing  inversely  a  greater  need  for 
personal  expostulation  with  the  sovereign,  which 
still  further  served  to  throw  her  on  the  side  of  the 
Tories,  who  grew  more  confident  as  the  knowledge 
of  the  increasing  dislike  of  the  Queen  for  the  Whigs 
was  spread  by  news-letters  in  country  towns,  and 
among  the  parsonages  and  manor-houses  where 
the  Dissenter  was  still  called  a  knave.  The  hopes 
of  the  clergy  manifestly  increased  as  the  day  of 
triumph  over  Nonconformity  and  the  Whigs  seemed 
to  be  approaching,  and  the  churches  resounded 
with  harangues  animated  with  militant  intolerance.^ 

^  "  Mr.  Cornwall  preached  the  same  sermon  before  the  judges  at 


94  ROBERT   HARLEY 

Thus  both  In  the  country  and  at  Court  circumstances 
were  surely  tending  to  Godolphin's  downfall.  He 
had  driven  Harley  from  his  Cabinet  and  into  active 
opposition ;  tactful,  watchful,  and  incessantly  but 
quietly  active,  Harley  now  sounded  one  politician 
and  now  interviewed  another,  and  he  had  a  valu- 
able ally  by  the  side  of  the  Queen.  Thus  sup- 
ported by  public  feeling  and  the  favour  of  the 
sovereign,  his  opportunity  had  come.  By  a  com- 
bination of  circumstances  partly  personal  and  partly 
public,  some  of  his  own  making  and  some  arising 
from  the  necessary  evolution  of  events,  he  was 
carried  to  the  summit  of  political  power. 

Among  these  personal  and  secondary  causes 
the  influence  of  Abigail  Masham  with  the  Queen 
was  the  most  effective  in  raising  Harley  from 
opposition  to  office. 

Abigail  Hill,  a  first  cousin  of  the  Duchess  of 
Marlborough,  the  daughter  of  an  impoverished 
London  merchant,  had  been  placed  by  her 
powerful  relative  in  the  royal  household.  By  good 
luck  she  became,  about  1704,  Bedchamber  Woman 
to  the  Queen,  and  in  1 707  married  Samuel  Masham, 
an  official  of  the  Court.  From  that  moment  the 
quarrel  between  the  Duchess,  jealous  of  the  rising 
favourite,  and  her  cousin  began.  It  was  not,  how- 
Salop  with  applause,  the  text,  Psalms  the  94th  and  i6th  verse,  'Who 
will  rise  up  for  me  against  the  evil  doers,  and  who  will  stand  up  for 
me  against  the  workers  of  iniquity?'" — R.  Knight  to  R.  Harley, 
4th  April  1710.    Harley  Papers^  ii.  539. 


THE    QUEEN    AND   MRS.    MASHAM     95 

ever,  until  after  Harleys  resignation  in  1708  that 
Abigail  Masham  became  a  factor  in  politics. 

She  was  Harleys  cousin,  and  the  Duchess  of 
Marlborough  has  herself  stated  that  she  was  the 
same  relation  to  him  as  to  her.  But  it  was  not 
until  1707  that  the  relationship  appears  to  have 
been  discovered  by  Harley  —  for  he  had  then, 
wrote  Addison,  ** found  out"  that  she  was  his 
cousin.  It  was  a  most  opportune  discovery.  It 
at  once  gave  him  more  influence  with  the  Queen 
than  had  any  other  statesman.  Lady  Masham — as 
she  became  in  171 1  when  her  husband  was  created 
a  peer — was  not  yet  a  power  in  politics,  and  her 
influence  with  the  Queen  arose  not  a  little  from  the 
fact  that  she  was  simply  the  personal  friend  of  the 
sovereign,  and  not  a  recognised  ally  of  either  party. 
Swift,  with  the  enthusiasm  for  those  whom  he  liked 
which  was  characteristic  of  him,  said  that  she  was 
a  woman  of  ''  boldness  and  courage  superior  to  her 
sex."  This  is  a  far  too  flattering  description  of  an 
ordinary  woman,  not  without  some  sagacity  and 
tact,  but  whose  chief  virtue  in  the  eyes  of  her 
mistress  was  that  she  did  not  bully  her. 

Pleasant  in  manner  and  good  -  natured,  with 
considerable  natural  shrewdness,  Abigail  Masham 
had  a  real  affection  for  the  Queen,  though  it  was 
often  tinged  with  something  akin  to  contempt :  *'  I 
am  very  much  afraid  of  my  aunt's  (Queen)  conduct 
in  her  affairs,  and  all  will  come  from  her  want  of  a 


96  ROBERT   HARLEY 

little  ready  money  (courage) ;  for  hitherto,  you  know, 
the  want  of  that  has  made  her  a  most  sad  figure 
in  the  world.  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  have  your 
opinion  upon  things,  that  I  may  lay  it  before  her  ; 
for  that  is  all  can  be  done.  I  trust  in  God  and 
beg  of  Him  to  supply  her,  that  she  may  not  be  so 
blinded,  but  save  herself  while  it  is  in  her  power."  ^ 
Such  was  her  opinion  of  her  sovereign  in  July 
1 708.  As  the  Queen  was  more  and  more  harassed 
by  Godolphin,  by  Marlborough,  and  by  the  Duchess, 
it  needed  but  little  tact  on  the  part  of  Mrs. 
Masham  to  become  a  confidante  of  Anne — while 
the  waiting-woman  in  her  turn  relied  on  her  newly 
found  cousin.  **  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  have  your 
opinion  upon  things,  that  I  may  lay  it  before  her." 
The  advice  of  a  statesman  conveyed  through  the 
agreeable  medium  of  a  young,  pleasant,  and 
straightforward  lady  -  in  -  waiting,  anxious  for  the 
happiness  of  her  mistress,  was  a  very  different 
thing  from  the  peevish  complaints  of  Godolphin, 
the  reluctant  but  masterful  interposition  of  Marl- 
borough, and  the  tantrums  of  his  wife.  Anne's 
woman's  nature  thus  tended  to  Harley's  success. 
At  first  the  aim  of  these  two  persons  may  have 
been  uncertain,  but  by  the  end  of  1709  it  had 
become  clear.  ''  I  received  yours  by  Mr.  Davenant 
and  also  that  by  Mrs.  Banks  very  safe,  and  desire 
I  may  not  burn  the  first,  till  I  have  read  it  to  my 

^  Harlcy  Papers^  ii.  499. 


QUEEN   ANNE 

After  a  portrait  by  Michael  Dahl  in  the  .\ationul  Portrait  Gallery 


DISMISSAL   OF   SUNDERLAND     97 

friend  (the  Queen),  who  wants  such  good  instruc- 
tions ;  and  though  she  has  had  the  same  advice 
last  year,  yet  I  think  it  cannot  be  too  often  repeated 
to  one  that  shows  so  little  courage  and  resolution 
as  she  has  hitherto  done.  I  have  a  great  mind  to 
go  to  London  to  see  you  before  you  leave  that 
place,  but  shall  not  be  able  to  compass  that  design 
till  about  the  24th  of  this  month.  As  for  you 
writing  a  letter  for  me  to  show  my  friend,  you 
had  better  not  do  it,  for  I  fear  she  will  be  afraid 
of  being  examined  about  it,  so  I  dare  answer  she 
would  much  rather  know  nothing  of  the  matter. 
I  have  often  spoken  to  her  about  Lord  T.'s  office, 
but  never  could  obtain  a  satisfactory  answer.  If 
I  cannot  be  so  happy  to  secure  it  for  you,  I  won't 
attempt  doing  it  myself"  ^ 

The  object,  therefore,  which  at  that  time  Harley 
and  Mrs.  Masham  had  set  themselves  to  obtain  is 
clear — he  was  to  become  Lord  Treasurer. 

The  most  serious  sign  at  the  centre  of  affairs  of 
the  approaching  fall  of  Godolphin  was  the  dismissal 
of  Sunderland  on  the  13th  of  June  17 10 — not  only 
a  leading  Whig,  but  also  the  son-in-law  of  Marl- 
borough. This  decisive  action  could  not  fail  to 
strike  public  attention  ;  and  it  was  very  suggestive, 
for  men  could  well  remember  how  the  coming 
domination  of  the  Whigs  over  Godolphin  and  the 
unwilling   Queen  was   signalised   by  the   appoint- 

^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  524. 
7 


98  ROBERT   HARLEY 

ment  in  1 708  of  Sunderland  as  Secretary  of  State. 
Thus  there  was  a  peculiar  irony  in  his  fall  which 
was  a  personal  satisfaction  to  Harley  and  the 
Queen.  Yet  the  first  step  was  conducted  with  the 
tact  which  one  would  expect  from  Harley.  Sunder- 
land was  known  to  be  extremely  obnoxious  to  the 
Queen,  while  his  hot  temper  and  arrogant  manner 
made  him  little  liked  even  by  political  friends.  He 
could  be  dismissed  without  alarming  the  country 
and  the  monied  men,  especially  the  merchants  of 
London,  and  without  much  regret  being  felt  by  his 
own  party.  He  was  succeeded  by  Lord  Dartmouth, 
a  judicious  and  amiable  nobleman,  whose  appoint- 
ment was  intended  to  show  the  Queen's  moderation, 
and  to  allay  the  fears  of  the  large  body  of  persons 
who  hovered  in  opinion  between  the  two  sharply 
divided  parties. 

But  all  things  tended  in  the  same  direction  :  the 
over-reaching  claims  of  Marlborough,  the  impolitic 
trial  of  Sacheverell,  the  hostility  of  public  opinion, 
especially  of  the  High  Churchmen,  the  unpopu- 
larity of  the  war,  the  personal  position  of  Godolphin 
forcing  him  to  be  importunate  with  the  Queen. 
These  different  political  streams  finally  uniting, 
overwhelmed  the  Lord  Treasurer.  On  the  8th  of 
August  1 7 10  he  received  by  letter  his  dismissal  from 
his  Queen  ;  on  the  same  day  Harley  was  appointed 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  then  became 
Prime   Minister.      That   political   term   was   then 


FALL   OF  GODOLPHIN  99 

almost  unknown,  but  it  alone  expresses  the  abso- 
lutely dominating  political  position  of  Harley  when 
he  came  into  office.  In  the  country  he  had  been 
preparing  the  public  for  a  change  of  Government, 
but,  as  before,  he  had  been  careful  to  demonstrate 
his  unique  position  as  a  moderating  politician. 
*'  Since  I  had  the  honour  of  seeing  you,"  wrote 
the  ubiquitous  De  Foe  to  him  on  the  28th  of 
July  1 7 10,  **  I  can  assure  you  by  experience  I 
find  the  acquainting  some  people  they  are  not  all 
to  be  devoured  and  eaten  up,  will  have  all  the 
effect  upon  them  could  be  wished  for,  assuring 
them  that  moderate  counsels  are  at  the  bottom  of 
all  these  things ;  that  the  old  mad  party  are  not 
coming  in  ;  that  his  Grace  the  Duke  of  Shrewsbury 
and  yourself  are  at  the  head  of  the  management, 
and  that  neither  have  been  moved,  however  ill- 
treated,  to  forsake  the  principles  you  always  served  ; 
that  toleration,  succession,  or  union  are  not  struck 
at,  and  that  they  may  be  easy  as  to  the  nation  s 
liberties."^ 

These  were  the  principles  of  the  Revolution,  in 
other  words,  the  principles  of  the  Whig  statesmen, 
whom  Harley  had  just  defeated,  but  they  were  the 
principles  upon  which  Harley  had  acted  in  the  past, 
and  by  which  he  was  determined  to  be  guided 
in  the  future.  Yet  he  was  taking  office  as  the 
leader  of  the  Tories,  never  more  hot  with  animosity 

^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  552. 


100  ROBERT   HARLEY 

against  the  Nonconformists  than  at  the  moment 
when  they  had  for  their  new  leader  one  who  was 
the  son  and  grandson  of  rigid  Puritans,  and 
himself  more  in  sympathy  with  a  Baptist  than  a 
High  Churchman.  Harley's  accession  to  power 
was  an  actual  check  not  only  to  the  present  policy 
of  the  Whigs,  but  also  to  the  unbounded  ambitions 
and  arrogance,  the  constantly  increasing  claims  of 
the  Whig  chief,  who  by  conmon  action  had  obtained 
the  control  of  an  obedient  and  united  Parliamentary 
party.  His  object  had  been  secured  by  the  com- 
bined action  of  the  personal  will  of  the  sovereign 
and  of  popular  feeling,  aided  by  the  most  influential 
Tories,  by  whom  he  was  regarded  as  the  only 
leader  who  could  bring  them  back  to  power. 
"  No  one,"  wrote  Bolingbroke  to  him  soon  after 
the  triumph  of  the  Whigs  in  1708,  **is  able  to 
do  so  much  as  you  towards  removing  our  present 
evils."  ^  We  cannot,  however,  too  clearly  re- 
member that  in  each  of  the  two  capital  events  of 
Harley's  political  career — his  defeat  by  the  Whigs 
in  1708  and  his  triumph  in  17 10 — more  powerful 
than  intrigue  or  personal  ambitions  was  the  force 
of  popular  opinion. 

1  Longleat  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.  Com.,  p.  193.    Seealsop.  191 :  "You 
broke  the  party  ;  unite  it  again." 


CHAPTER  VI 

PRIME  MINISTER 

1710-1714 

Harley's  Negotiations  with  the  Whig  Junto— The  Posi- 
tion OF  Halifax — Harley  forms  a  Tory  Cabinet — Contrast 
BETWEEN  Harley  and  Bolingbroke— Introduction  of  Swift 
TO  Harley— Erasmus  Lewis— Swift  and  Harley— The  Rela- 
tions OF  Marlborough  and  Harley— The  Conclusion  of 
Peace  the  Object  of  Harley's  Policy— Guiscard's  Attempt 
on  Harley's  Life — Harley  created  Earl  of  Oxford  and 
APPOINTED  Lord  Treasurer— Negotiations  with  France— 
Marlborough  opposes  Harley's  Policy— The  Government 
defeated  in  the  Lords  on  the  Address— Temporary  Alli- 
ance of  High  Church  Tories  and  Whigs— Bill  against 
Occasional  Conformity  carried— De  Foe's  Suggestion  to 
defeat  it— The  Political  Crisis— Harley's  Confidence— 
The  Creation  of  Peers— 1711  and  1832— Dismissal  of  Marl- 
borough—Triumph  OF  Harley— The  Restraining  Orders- 
Conclusion  OF  Peace. 

HARLEY  had  no  sooner  attained  to  supreme 
power  in  1710,  than,  acting  on  those  prin- 
ciples of  moderation  which  he  was  always  endeav- 
ouring to  follow,  he  sought  to  induce  Somers, 
Cowper,  Halifax,  and  other  Whigs  to  take  office 
in  his  Administration.  The  negotiations  between 
Halifax  and  Somers  on  the  one  hand  and  Harley  on 
the  other  continued  to  the  end  of  the  year  1711,^ 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  108,  115,  120. 
101 


102  ROBERT   HARLEY 

Halifax  being  apparently  the  chief  mover  in  them. 
Though  tliey  hadTio-rj^sult,  the  relations  of  the  two 
statesmen  were  throughout  the  continuance  of  the 
new  Admihistfatioh  isi'ngularly  cordial  and  confi- 
dential. The  position  of  Halifax  differed  from  that 
of  the  other  Whig  chiefs.  During  part  of  the  reign 
of  William  iii.,  from  1692  to  1699,  he  had  held  a 
remarkable  place  in  the  State  and  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  he 
had  achieved  unexampled  success.  Fallen  from 
office,  and  disappointed,  he  had  during  Godolphin's 
Ministry  failed  to  obtain  any  high  employment. 
This  exclusion  from  power  undoubtedly  was  a 
constant  grievance  to  him,  and  from  17 10  to  the  fall 
of  Harley's  Ministry  Halifax  was  unquestionably 
hopeful  of  forming  some  kind  of  coalition  with 
Harley,  the  friend  of  his  youth  and  of  his  manhood. 
Each  was  keenly  interested  in  the  national  finances, 
and  both,  though  each  differed  on  two  cardinal 
points  of  policy  from  his  party,  found  in  them  a 
common  political  bond.  For  both  agreed  in  the 
desire  for  religious  toleration,  and  both  were  sin- 
cerely anxious  for  peace  between  France  and  Eng- 
land, though  at  one  time  they  disagreed  on  its  terms. 
Yet  each  was  so  bound  to  the  party  to  which  he 
belonged,  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  openly  to 
coalesce ;  and  warm  and  confidential  as  was  their 
private  union,  Halifax  ultimately  became  a  member 
of  the  Administration  which  impeached  his  lifelong 


CHARLES   MONTAGUE,  EARL   OF   HALIFAX,  K.G. 

Frotn  a  portrait  by  Sir  Godfrey  KnelUr  hi  the  National  Portrait  Gallery 


NEGOTIATIONS   WITH   WHIGS     103 

friend.  The  negotiations,  however,  with  the  Whig 
chiefs  at  least  showed  Harley's  moderation  to  many 
who,  especially  in  London  and  the  larger  towns,  were 
watching  the  change  of  Government  with  apprehen- 
sion and  anxiety,  and  they  indicated  that  the  new 
Minister  did  not  intend  abruptly  to  end  the  policy 
of  the  late  Ministry.  They  thus  served  a  useful 
purpose,  perhaps  as  much  as  Harley  hoped  or 
intended,  though  they  did  not  result  in  a  political 
union.  The  Prime  Minister  would  willingly  have 
leavened  a  Tory  Ministry  if  he  could,  and  some  of 
the  minor  Whig  officials  retained  their  offices  ;  but 
the  chief  places  in  the  Government  had  to  be  filled 
with  Tories,  and  therefore  between  the  dissolution 
of  one  Parliament  on  21st  September  and  the 
meeting  of  another  on  25th  November,  the  new 
Administration  had  become  wholly  Tory.  Henry 
St.  John,  who  had  retired  with  Harley  in  1708, 
returned  to  office  as  the  one  of  the  two  Secretaries 
of  State  more  particularly  concerned  with  the 
conduct  of  foreign  affairs ;   Harcourt,^  who  repre- 

^  Simon  Harcourt,  i66i(?)-i727,  was  the  only  son  of  Sir  Philip 
Harcourt  of  Stanton  Harcourt,  Oxfordshire.  He  was  at  school  at 
Shelton  with  Robert  Harley,  and  went  subsequently  to  Oxford,  and 
in  1683  was  called  to  the  Bar.  In  1688,  Harcourt  succeeded  to  the 
family  estates,  and  in  1690  became  member  for  Abingdon.  He 
subsequently  took  a  leading  part  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
in  1707  became  Attorney  General,  but  resigned  office  with  Harley 
in  1708.  He  defended  Sacheverell  in  17 10 — at  that  time  being 
without  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons.  After  a  further  short 
period  of  office  as  Attorney  General,  he  was  appointed  Lord  Keeper 
of  the  Great  Seal  in  Harley's  Ministry,  and  on  3rd  September  1711 


104  ROBERT   HARLEY 

sented  not  only  Tory  lawyers  but  Tory  squires, 
became,  after  an  interval  of  office  as  Lord  Keeper, 
Lord  Chancellor,  and  Dartmouth  retained  the  other 
Secretaryship  of  State.  Harley  himself  was  at 
first  only  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  but  in 
May  of  the  following  year  he  was  appointed  to  the 
supreme  office  of  Lord  Treasurer,  having  a  week 
before  been  created  Earl  of  Oxford  and  Earl 
Mortimer. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  his  administration 
its  policy  was  wholly  directed  by  himself  and  St. 
John — they  were  as  yet  friends,  Harley  still  the 
"dear  Master  to  his  Harry." 

It  has  not  been  altogether  fortunate  for  Harley's 
fame  that  he  should  have  had  a  colleague  so 
brilliant  as  Bolingbroke,  one  so  entirely  his  opposite 
and  with  so  striking  a  personality. 

**The  Earl  of  Oxford  is  an  indefatigable  man 
of  business,  of  a  lively  and  aspiring  spirit,  and 
manages  the  caballing  parties  with  that  dexterity 
that  he  keeps  in  with  both.  It  was  his  good 
fortune  to  understand  how  to  improve  the  in- 
discreet blunders  of  the  late  Ministry  to  his  own 
purpose,  by  using  the  Queen  with  all  duty  and 
respect   imaginable,    while    they    used    her    with 

he  was  created  a  peer  by  the  title  of  Baron  Harcourt.  In  September 
17 14  he  was  dismissed  from  office  by  George  I.  He  died  in  London 
on  29th  July  1727.  Harcourt  was  neither  a  learned  lawyer  nor  an 
eminent  statesman,  but  he  had  a  great  reputation  as  a  speaker. 


CONTRAST   WITH   BOLINGBROKE     105 

contempt;  and  while  he  was  concerned  with  the 
public  affairs  asked  nothing  contrary  to  her  pleasure 
and  good  liking,  whereby  he  engrossed  to  himself 
all  her  favour  and  esteem,  and  by  his  smooth  tongue 
and  winning  mien  got  so  great  an  ascendant  over 
her  that  he  has  her  approbation  of  all  that  he  does, 
so  that  he  now  steers  the  helm  of  state  with  as 
great  sway  as  ever  Richelieu  or  Mazarin  did  in 
France ;  and  to  fix  himself  faster  therein  he  has 
introduced  persons  (in  a  manner)  subservient  to 
him,  some  of  low  birth  and  small  fortune,  but 
good  parts,  and  others  of  good  birth  and  great 
fortune,  but  without  experience  and  of  indifferent 
parts."  ^ 

Such  was  the  description  of  Harley  which 
Prince  Eugene  gave  to  the  Court  of  Vienna  after 
his  mission  to  England  in  171 2.  It  may  well  be 
compared  with  the  better-known  sketch  of  Boling- 
broke  which  Swift  has  left  us — 

**  I  think  Mr.  St.  John  the  greatest  young  man 
I  ever  knew,  with  capacity,  beauty,  quickness  of 
apprehension,  good  learning,  and  an  excellent  taste  ; 
the  best  orator  in  the  House  of  Commons,  admir- 
able conversation,  good  nature  and  good  manners ; 
generous,  and  a  despiser  of  money,  the  only  fault 
is  talking  with  friends  in  way  of  complaint  of  too 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  157. 


106  ROBERT   HARLEY 

great  a  level  of  business  which  looks  a  little  like 
affectation ;  and  he  endeavours  too  much  to  mix 
the  fine  gentleman  and  man  of  pleasure  with  the 
man  of  business."^ 

In  his  gifts  as  an  orator  and  a  writer,  in  his 
versatility  and  his  social  gaiety,  Bolingbroke  was 
the  antithesis  of  his  chief — a  halting  speaker,  a 
parliamentary  archaeologist,  a  collector  not  a  maker 
of  books,  and  whose  letters  are  as  involved  as 
Bolingbroke's  are  clear.  In  his  domestic  life 
Harley  was  as  irreproachable  as  Bolingbroke  was 
irregular. 

As  a  politician,  Bolingbroke,  who  was  every  inch 
a  cultivated  aristocrat,  was  without  principles  or 
scruples,  full  of  vanity  and  ambition.  Harley,  on 
the  contrary,  a  type  of  the  common-sense  English- 
man of  the  upper  middle  class,  held  and  acted  on 
fixed  ideas  of  political  conduct,  but  was  unfitted 
for  a  party  leader  in  a  national  crisis.  Strangely 
enough,  while  Bolingbroke,  a  pronounced  free 
thinker,  ultimately  became  the  head  of  the  High 
Church  section,  Harley,  who  was  now  chief  of  the 
Tory  party,  was  a  friend  of  the  Dissenters,  and 
was  more  in  sympathy  with  the  opinions  of  his 
opponents  than  with  those  of  whom  he  was  the 
leader.  He  was  the  most  unassuming  of  men,  and 
for  many  years  led  a  laborious  public  life  rather 

^  Journal^  3rd  November  171 1. 


SWIFT  AND  HARLEY  107 

from  a  love  of  practical  work  than  from  the 
desire  of  personal  distinction.  From  temperament 
and  from  an  accurate  perception  of  the  varying 
feeling  of  the  country,  trained  by  the  observation 
of  a  constant  volume  of  information  collected  by 
trustworthy  subordinates,  he  sought  to  steer  a 
course  which  would  give  him  the  support  of  the 
moderate  men  of  both  parties,  and  of  that  large 
mass  of  the  people  who  desire  peace  and  prosperity 
without  regard  to  party  fortunes.  A  Whig  in 
principle,  he  was  always  endeavouring  to  moderate 
the  actions  of  the  Tory  High-flyers  and  never  to 
press  harshly  on  the  Nonconformists.  How  difficult 
and  indeed  impossible  such  an  ideal  of  political 
conduct  was  when  reduced  to  practice  in  such  an 
age  as  that  in  which  Harley  lived,  his  fortunes 
sufficiently  show.  How  it  involved  him  in  double 
dealing  is  equally  clear.  And  yet  it  was  an  object 
for  which  there  was  much  to  be  said,  and  which 
in  other  times  might  not  have  been  impossible  of 
success. 

It  has  been  told  how  Harley  and  De  Foe 
became  acquainted  ;  in  1710  the  friendship  between 
Harley  and  Swift  began,  which  was  ended  only  by 
death.  In  that  year  Swift  returned  from  Ireland 
to  the  centre  of  political  affairs  in  London.  Dis- 
appointed with  the  Whigs,  he  arrived  in  England 
as  the  change  of  Government  was  in  process  of 
completion,  anxious  to  settle  once  for  all  the  long 


108  ROBERT   HARLEY 

outstanding  question  of  the  Irish  first-fruits.^ 
Never  a  thorough  believer  in  the  policy  of  the 
Whigs,  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  turned  to  those 
who  were  now  in  the  ascendant.  He  was  promised 
an  interview  with  Harley,  and  on  4th  October  he 
was  introduced  to  him  by  Erasmus  Lewis.  This 
useful  person  never  rendered  Harley, a  better  service 
than  when  he  made  Swift  personally  known  to  him. 
It  is  the  natural  fate  of  many  who  have  had  an 
important  but  unseen  influence  on  public  affairs, 
and  on  the  actions  of  eminent  public  men,  to  pass 
into  oblivion.  Lewis  was  one  of  those  persons 
who  move  silently  behind  the  scenes,  influencing 
events  but  unknown  to  the  world.  Though  his 
counsel  had  great  weight  with  the  Tory  leaders,  he 
has  been  almost  forgotten.  His  career,  however, 
is  noteworthy  and  interesting.  Born  in  1670  in  the 
Vale  of  Towy,  he  obtained  a  scholarship  at  West- 
minster and  thence  proceeded  to  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge.  After  living  for  some  years  in 
Germany,  he  became — about    1700 — Secretary  to 

^  Swift  had  come  over  to  England  in  1708  empowered  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Dublin  on  behalf  of  the  Irish  clergy,  to  obtain  for  them 
a  remission  of  the  first-fruits  and  tenths — the  first  whole  year's  profit 
of  a  preferment  and  one-tenth  of  the  subsequent  annual  profits — 
which  were  paid  to  the  Crown.  In  England  these  payments  had 
been  granted  to  the  clergy  by  charter,  confirmed  by  statute  in  1703 
(2  &  3  Anne,  c.  11),  and  formed  the  fund  then  and  since  known  as 
Queen  Anne's  Bounty.  Swift  had  several  interviews  with  Godolphin, 
the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  and  other  Ministers  on  the  subject,  and  was  at 
length  assured  that  the  Queen  had  made  the  grant.  But  he  had  to 
return  to  Ireland  in  1709  much  vexed  at  the  business  being  still 
uncompleted. 


JONATHAN   SWIFT 

From  a  portrait  by  Charles  yervas  in  the  Xaiional  Portrait  Gallery 


ERASMUS   LEWIS  109 

Lord  Macclesfield,  then  Ambassador  in  Paris, 
after  whose  recall  in  1701  Lewis  appears  to  have 
fallen  to  the  prosaic  position  of  a  schoolmaster  at 
Carmarthen.  By  some  means  he  became  known 
to  Harley,  who,  with  his  usual  insight  into  character, 
appointed  him  in  May  1704  one  of  his  secretaries. 
His  fortune  was  now  assured.  Hard-working, 
judicious,  and  agreeable,  he  became  an  invaluable 
assistant  to  Harley.  After  the  fall  of  his  chief,  he 
was  given,  in  1709,  the  place  of  Under-Secretary 
of  State,  a  post  he  continued  to  hold  throughout 
Harley  s  Administration.  When  the  Whigs  came 
into  power  in  1714,  Lewis'  official  career  ended, 
but  Harley,  with  his  customary  kindness,  appointed 
him  his  steward,  chiefly,  one  may  think,  for  the 
purpose  of  paying  him  a  salary.  For  Lewis  trans- 
acted very  little  business,  and  lived  thenceforward 
an  easy,  agreeable  life,  now  visiting  in  this  house 
and  now  in  that,  playing  ombre  with  the  ladies  and 
gossiping  with  the  men.  He  had  reached  the 
mature  age  of  fifty-four  before  he  married,  when, 
with  his  usual  prudence,  he  selected  a  well-to-do 
widow  lady  no  younger  than  himself.  A  typical 
permanent  official,  he  was  the  business  man  of  that 
coterie  of  men  of  letters  and  statesmen  with  whom 
Harley  foregathered ;  the  judicious  friend  of  Swift 
and  Prior,  of  Parnell  and  Pope,  of  Arbuthnot  and 
Gay,  he  outlived  them  all,  not  dying  till  the  age  of 
eighty-three,  in  1754. 


110  ROBERT  HARLEY 

This,  then,  was  the  man  who  initiated  the  famous 
friendship  between  Harley  and  Swift. 

"  To-day,"  says  Swift  in  the  Journal  to  Stella, 
"  I  was  brought  privately  to  Mr.  Harley,  who 
received  me  with  the  greatest  respect  and  kindness 
imaginable."  The  gift  of  accurate  perception  of 
efficient  subordinates  was  always  a  marked  feature 
in  Harley 's  character.  *'  He  was  seldom  mistaken 
in  his  judgment  of  men,"  says  Swift  himself,  ''and 
therefore  not  apt  to  change  a  good  or  ill  opinion 
by  the  representation  of  others."  This  quality 
was  never  more  clearly  shown  than  by  the  rapid 
unreserve  of  his  immediate  and  close  intercourse 
with  Swift ;  his  treatment  of  him  was  masterly, 
indicative  of  his  keen  insight  into  men's  characters, 
for  he  received  him  with  a  frankness  and  a  friend- 
ship, unlike  his  usual  reserve,  thus  at  once  winning 
the  permanent  confidence  and  goodwill  of  a  man 
who  was  not  only  at  the  moment  irritated  by  want 
of  success  in  his  negotiations  with  the  Whigs,  but 
was  to  the  last  degree  sensitive  and  proud.  Harley 
possessed  the  rare  power  of  attaching  some  men 
to  him  by  a  tie  of  personal  affection.  Swift,  Prior, 
and  Erasmus  Lewis  remained  for  years  friends  as 
much  as  fellow-workers  ;  to  retain  their  confidence 
is  sufficient  evidence  that  there  were  traits  in 
Harley's  nature  more  admirable  than  were 
apparent  to  many  of  his  contemporaries. 

The  time  which  followed  this  introduction  was 


SWIFT  AND   HARLEY  111 

certainly  the  happiest  part  of  Swift's  Hfe  ;  it  had  its 
anxieties  and  its  cares,  but  he  was  hopeful  for  the 
future,  and  his  ambition  was  for  the  moment 
gratified  in  a  way  to  which  he  could  a  short  time 
before  never  in  his  most  sanguine  hours  have 
looked  forward.  For  his  influence,  as  he  well 
knew,  and  as  every  one  took  care  to  inform  him, 
was  felt  both  by  the  public  and  by  the  Government. 
No  one  but  a  Cabinet  Minister  was  ever  so  near 
the  centre  of  affairs,  and  no  one  enjoyed  more 
keenly  the  excitement  of  political  warfare,  or 
appreciated  more  the  consideration  which  his 
unique  position  caused  him  to  receive.  Every  one, 
from  an  ambassador  to  a  literary  hack,  sought  his 
assistance.  To  a  man  of  Swifts  temperament, 
the  retrospect  in  after  years  of  that  singular  time, 
and  of  his  share  in  memorable  events,  was  enough 
to  cause  a  career  more  agreeable  than  that  of  an 
Irish  Dean  engaged  in  letters  and  in  political 
controversy,  to  appear  flat,  unprofitable,  and 
wholly  disappointing. 

From  the  first  the  relations  of  Harley  and 
Swift  were  very  cordial,  marked  by  an  agreeable 
and  social  kindness  on  the  part  of  the  statesman, 
by  a  varied  enjoyment  in  which  personal  dignity 
was  never  lost  on  the  part  of  the  man  of  letters. 
Harley  was  always  ready  to  listen,  and  to  appre- 
ciate Swift's  views  on  the  affairs  of  the  nation. 
**His   mind,"  wrote    Lewis    in    1713,   **has   been 


112  ROBERT   HARLEY 

communicated  more  fully  to  you  than  any  one 
else,"  while  Swift  on'  his  side  stated  his  opinions 
to  the  Minister  with  a  frankness  which  never  for 
a  moment  interrupted  the  personal  friendship  of 
the  two  men — *'in  your  public  capacity,"  he  wrote 
in  1 714,  **you  have  often  angered  me  to  the  heart, 
but  as  a  private  man  never  once." 

Swift  soon  got  to  work  for  his  new  friends, 
and  from  November  17 10  until  the  following 
June  he  wrote  a  weekly  essay  in  the  Examiner ^ 
which  had  lately  been  established  by  Bolingbroke. 
He  avowed  himself  to  be  a  Tory,  but  yet  a  reason- 
able, honest  man  who  hated  *'  mad,  ridiculous 
extremes."  His  essays  were  admirable  advocacy; 
they  appealed  to  the  common  sense  of  his  reader, 
placing  him  on  good  terms  with  himself.  He 
glided  over  weak  places  with  so  much  art,  and  his 
strong  points  emerged  so  naturally,  while  every 
line  was  illuminated  by  a  delightful  vitality,  that 
whether  he  was  defending  the  change  of  Ministry, 
the  treatment  of  Marlborough,  or  the  negotiations 
with  France,  the  person  who  perused  his  writings 
insensibly  found  himself  a  stronger  Tory  than  the 
author.  The  famous  pamphlets  which  followed — 
The  Conduct  of  the  Allies  and  Remarks  on  the 
Banner  Treaty  —  for  the  same  reasons  were 
equally  effective. 

Harley's  accession  to  power  necessarily  brought 
him  again  into  close  connection  with  Marlborough, 


MARLBOROUGH  AND   HARLEY     113 

but  their  relations  were  different  from  those  of  four 
years  before,  when  Marlborough  was  chiefly  instru- 
mental in  bringing  him  into  high  office.  Funda- 
mentally they  were,  and  had  always  been,  in 
agreement  in  regard  to  English  parties.  To 
Marlborough,  Whig  and  Tory  were  **  detested 
names,"  to  Harley  they  were  significant  of  ''party 
tyranny."  If  Marlborough  and  Harley  could  have 
dispensed  with  party  support,  the  one  for  the  con- 
duct of  the  war,  the  other  for  the  retention  of 
office,  they  might  have  remained  on  terms  of 
political  and  personal  friendship. 

-It  was  long  before  Marlborough  could  be  per- 
suaded to  take  up  a  position  hostile  to  Harley, 
and  it  was  only  when  he  thought  that  the  Lord 
Treasurer  and  the  Tories  were  likely  to  hinder  his 
opportunities  as  a  soldier,  that  he  was  willing  to  take 
actively  the  side  of  the  Whigs.  But  by  the  time 
that  Harley  was  placed  in  office  by  the  Queen  in 
1 7  lo,  Marlborough's  friendship  had  turned  to  dislike. 
**  He  will  continue  by  the  army,"  he  writes  to  the 
Duchess  in  October  1710,  when  the  new  Parliament 
was  being  elected.  And  he  continues,  *'  I  detest 
Mr.  Harley,  but  think  I  have  lived  long  enough 
in  the  world  to  be  able  to  distinguish  between 
reason  and  faction."  Years  before  he  had  written 
to  his  wife,  ''  I  meddle  with  no  business  but  what 
belongs   to   the   army."     It   was   vexation  at  the 

hindrance  which    Harley,   whom   he   now   rightly 
8 


114  ROBERT   HARLEY 

associated  with  the  Tory  party,  would  be  to  him 
as  a  general,  that  had  caused  his  change  of 
opinion ;  it  was  disappointment  and  weariness 
at  the  party  battles  which  to  him  seemed  so 
unreasonable,  so  unnecessary,  and  so  childish ;  it 
was  regret  at  the  loss  of  Godolphin,  who  had  so 
strenuously  aided  him  at  home. 

In  many  respects  Harley  was  in  exactly  the 
same  frame  of  mind,  but  from  an  opposite  point 
of  view.  John  Drummond,  who  had  long  been 
his  confidential  agent  in  Holland,  wrote  to  him 
on  the  iith  of  November  1710 — 

**  All  the  weak  arguments  which  I  can  produce 
can  be  but  of  little  influence  if  matters  be  other- 
wise fixed  and  a  scheme  laid  by  which  that  great 
man  is  to  lose  his  command,  and  I  only  should 
reason  in  the  dark  if  I  pretended  to  give  the  best 
reasons  I  am  capable  of  on  that  subject,  and  there- 
fore as  to  a  reconciliation  I  should  think  it  nowise 
impracticable  if  there  were  a  real  inclination  to  it 
on  both  sides,  and  that  it  be  the  Queen's  intention. 
The  true  way  to  begin  it  is  by  a  mutual  complais- 
ance, and  I  could  wish  there  were  no  dispute  who 
was  to  begin  and  make  the  first  advances.  I 
think  a  faithful,  honest  man  who  had  no  by-end, 
and  in  whom  both  had  some  confidence,  might  by 
a  mutual  consent  of  both  parties  break  ground, 
and  try  by  one  or  two  preliminary  points  whether 


MARLBOROUGH   AND   HARLEY     115 

there  were  hopes  of  succeeding  in  an  entire  treaty. 
I  am  confident  you  would  strengthen  your  party 
more  by  gaining  that  one  man  than  by  any  other 
thing  imaginable,  and  I  believe  he  is  sensible  of 
the  intolerable  measures  which  others  encouraged 
him  to  go  into.     I  know  he  hates  some  of  their 
leaders    very   heartily,   and    I    believe    he   would 
abandon  his  old  friend  so  far  as  never  to  desire 
to  have  him  in  play  again,  but  let  him  lie  by  the 
rest  of  his  days.     I  am  also  persuaded  he  would 
part  with  any  one  or  all  of  the  damnation  club  for 
their  ill-behaviour ;  but  these  may  be  conjectures, 
and  cannot  be  well  known  till  they  are  proposed. 
I   know  this  would  be   insupportable  doctrine  to 
Lord  Rivers  and  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  whom  I  both 
honour,  love,  and  esteem ;  but  as  no  private  man's 
interest  ought  or  must  come  in  computation  with 
the   present   welfare    of    the    public,    and   to   get 
honourably  rid  of  this  bloody,  pernicious,  expen- 
sive, and  destructive  war,  neither  any  private  pique 
ought  to  prevail  so  far  as  to  hinder  or  any  wise 
encourage  the  enemy  not  to  renew  their  proposals 
for  a  peace,  which  the  Dutch  I  am  sure,  and  very 
sure,  want  but  to  have  in  a  manner  on  any  terms  ; 
and  if  ever  proposed,  if  they  don't  come  to  a  con- 
clusion as  well  as  they  can,  I  shall  never  pretend 
to  know  anything  of  them  or  their  measures  for 
the  future,  and  we  are  in  no  worse  circumstances 
than  when  the  enemy  made  their  last  proposals. 


116  ROBERT   HARLEY 

We  have  gained  two  battles  In  Spain  and  four 
strong  towns  in  Flanders,  and  the  like  success 
another  campaign  must  bring  us  upon  the  terri- 
tories of  old  France. 

'*  What  is  it,  are  we  to  imagine,  that  hinders  or 
will  hinder  their  new  proposals,  but  what  they 
write  us  every  day,  viz.  the  hopes  they  have  of 
the  divisions  in  England,  and  that  the  Duke  of 
Marlborough  will  be  made  so  uneasy  as  to  be 
obliged  to  retire  and  abandon  the  army,  who  they 
know  has  been  no  less  instrumental  in  keeping 
the  Allies  together  as  in  his  success  in  the  field. 
It  is  not  for  his  person,  but  for  the  public  good 
that  I  argue  or  presume  to  meddle  in  so  important 
an  affair,  for  well  do  I  know  all  his  vices  as  well 
as  his  virtues,  and  I  know  as  well  that  though  his 
covetousness  has  gained  him  much  reproach  and 
ill-will  on  this  side  of  the  world,  yet  his  success  in 
the  field,  his  capacity  or  rather  dexterity  in  council 
or  in  the  Cabinet,  and  his  personal  acquaintance 
with  the  heads  of  the  Alliance  and  the  faith  they 
have  in  him,  make  him  still  the  great  man  with 
them,  and  on  whom  they  depend.  I  can  tell  you 
with  certainty  what  I  meet  in  daily  conversation  : 
that  you  will  have  little  money  to  expect  from  this 
if  he  stay  at  home ;  that  they  wish  with  all  their 
hearts  almost  any  sort  of  peace  before  he  be  taken 
from  them ;  that  there  is  no  Englishman  who  they 
have  any  opinion  for   the  command  of  an  army 


MARLBOROUGH  AND  HARLEY    117 

but  himself;  that  his  agreeing  so  well  with  Prince 
Eugene  is  one  of  their  greatest  contentments,  and 
to  make  a  new  acquaintance  and  intimacy  of  such 
a  nature  with  any  one  what  they  fear  and  abhor 
the  thoughts  of."^ 

To  this  sensible  and  clear  expostulation 
Harley  replied  by  thanking  Drummond  for 
having  written  **so  plain,  so  prudently,  and  with 
so  much  affection,"  then  he  continued — 

"  As  to  any  reconciliation  between  me  and  the 
(Duke  of  Marlborough),  give  me  leave  to  say  that 
I  were  unworthy  the  Queen's  service  should  I  not 
live  with  any  one  that  her  service  or  the  public 
good  requires.  I  do  solemnly  assure  you  I  have 
not  the  least  resentment  towards  him  or  any  one 
else.  I  thank  God  my  mind  puts  me  above  that. 
I  never  did  revenge  injuries,  and  never  will 
sacrifice  the  public  quiet  to  my  own  resentment. 
I  believe  there  is  not  one  here  thinks  I  retain  any 
revenge,  but  have  given  many  instances  (of  for) 
giving  and  forgetting  very  great  injuries.  I  (have) 
scarce  used  the  common  caution  of  doing  anything 
se  defendendoy  for  fear  it  should  be  thought  to  be 
the  effect  of  resentment.  In  one  word,  I  do  assure 
you  I  can  live  and  act  with  the  Duke  now  in  the 
same  manner  and  with  the  same  easiness  as  the 

^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  620. 


118  ROBERT  HARLEY 

first  day  that  ever  I  saw  him  ;  and  that  you  may 
be  convinced  this  is  my  temper  and  not  words  only, 
I  must  tell  you  some  things  which  have  passed 
since  April  last,  and  many  more  I  could  add.  .  .  . 
But  this  I  find  by  experience,  those  who  have  done 
injuries  are  more  difficult  to  be  reconciled  than 
those  who  have  received  injuries ;  and  hatred,  the 
more  groundless  and  unreasonable  it  is,  the  more 
durable  and  violent  it  most  times  proves.  Now  I 
have  opened  to  you  my  heart  upon  this  subject, 
and  do  again  assure  you  that  no  resentment  of 
mine  shall  ever  obstruct  the  public  service  or 
hinder  the  co-operating  with  any  one  for  the  good 
of  the  common  cause."  ^ 

This  letter  was  communicated  to  Marlborough, 
and  it  produced  a  determination  on  the  part  of 
the  Duke  to  act  with  the  new  Ministry.  *'  He  has 
faithfully  promised,"  wrote  Drummond  on  the 
9th  December  1710,  ''that  he  is  resolved  to  live 
with  you,  if  you  will  make  it  practicable  or  possible 
for  him  ;  he  will  not  enter  into  the  heat  of  party 
details,  but  will  go  heartily  and  sincerely  into  all 
the  measures  that  may  be  esteemed  proper  for 
carrying  on  the  war."^  The  interview  was  long, 
and  much  more  was  said  to  the  same  effect,  all 
ending  in  the  one  fact  that,  to  use  Drummond  s 
phrase,   the   Duke  was   prepared   '*  to   live "  with 

^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  623.  ^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  634. 


MARLBOROUGH   AND   HARLEY     119 

Harley's  Ministry.  In  the  previous  October 
Marlborough  had  told  the  Duchess  of  his  fear 
lest  peace  should  *'give  power  and  strength  to 
Mr.  Harley,  the  Queen,  and  Mrs.  Masham  to  vex 
me  and  those  I  wish  well  to."  This  compromise, 
therefore,  at  first  could  not  be  cordial,  but,  for 
the  time  being,  a  reconciliation  was  as  necessary 
for  Marlborough  as  it  was  for  Harley;  neither 
could  dispense,  if  he  would,  with  the  other.  For 
private  reasons  Marlborough  was  anxious  to  con- 
tinue on  good  terms  with  Harley,  for  he  had 
set  his  heart  on  the  completion  of  his  house  at 
Blenheim,  which  was  being  built  at  the  public 
expense.  Harley  assured  him  that  the  work 
should  be  pushed  on,  and  so  Marlborough  in  the 
summer  of  171 1  was  satisfied  with  "his  friend- 
ship and  good  offices."^  On  Harley,  in  place  of 
Godolphin,  Marlborough  had  to  depend  to  supply 
the  pay  of  the  army,  and  the  subsidies  of  the  allies. 
Marlborough,  without  doubt,  was  the  only  man  who 
could  achieve  success  in  the  field  and  manage  the 
troublesome  and  heterogeneous  forces  which  were 
under  his  command.  If  Harley  had  desired  to 
dismiss  the  Duke  from  his  high  position,  which  he 
certainly  did  not — for  no  one  recognised  more 
clearly  Marlborough's  genius  as  a  soldier — it  was  at 
present  impossible.  Thus  the  official  relations  of 
the  two  men  continued  amicable.     Harley  communi- 

1  Longleat  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.  Com.,  pp.  203,  205. 


120  ROBERT  HARLEY 

cated  with  him  fully  on  the  financial  requisites  of  the 
allied  forces  ;  Marlborough  had  as  heretofore  a  free 
hand  in  the  conduct  of  the  campaign.  During  the 
first  few  months  of  his  administration  Harley  was 
therefore  in  the  position  of  a  war  minister ;  he  had 
to  continue  the  task  which  Godolphin  had  under- 
taken, and  it  was  his  first  object  to  show  that 
though  men  were  changed  the  foreign  policy  of 
the  Cabinet  was  unaltered.  John  Drummond,  by 
Harley 's  orders,  told  his  friends  at  Amsterdam  *'that 
the  gentlemen  now  employed  by  the  Queen  were  as 
hearty  for  the  Revolution  as  any  in  England,  that 
they  are  firm  Protestants,  that  they  are  uninter- 
ested, that  they  have  good  land  estates  to  lose 
which  they  cannot  remove,  that  the  change  of 
Ministers  had  made  no  change  of  measures  as  to 
the  common  cause,  unless  it  were  in  being  more 
hearty  and  expeditious,  more  frugal  of  the  nation's 
money,  and  more  in  earnest  for  a  speedy  and 
reasonable  peace."  ^ 

In  the  last  sentence  of  the  letter,  we  see  the 
real  purpose  of  Harley  s  policy.^  He  had  to 
attain  a  single  and  very  definite  object — he  had  to 
end  the  war. 

As  soon  as  a  Ministry  comes  into  power,  much  is 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  639. 

2  The  Plan  of  Administration,  dated  30th  October  17 10  {Hard- 
wicke  State  Papers^  ii.  485),  has  little  importance  as  an  indication 
of  Harley's  policy  and  principles  ;  it  is  scarcely  more  than  a  memor- 
andum on  some  details  of  party  management. 


WOUNDED   BY   GUISCARD        121 

expected  of  it,  and  if  something  capable  of  popular 
appreciation  is  not  quickly  accomplished  a  reaction 
ensues.  It  was  impossible  for  Harley's  policy 
to  produce  the  desired  results  at  once,  and  in  the 
beginning  of  171 1  Harley  appeared  to  be  losing 
popularity.  By  a  mere  accident  he  was  suddenly 
and  extraordinarily  strengthened.  A  broken-down 
Frenchman  named  Guiscard,  who  for  many  years 
had  been  a  mere  adventurer — sometimes  a  soldier, 
sometimes  a  diplomatist,  and  more  often  a  spy — was 
being  examined  on  nth  March  171 1  at  Whitehall 
before  the  Privy  Council.  He  was  receiving  an 
allowance  from  the  Government,  and  this  by 
Harley's  direction  had  been  reduced ;  discovered 
to  be  in  treasonable  communication  with  France, 
he  had  been  arrested  by  Bolingbroke's  orders. 
In  the  middle  of  his  examination  he  stabbed 
Harley  with  a  small  knife.  The  wound  in  itself 
did  not  prove  serious,  but  it  produced  a  grave 
constitutional  disturbance,  and  for  the  time  this 
rather  theatrical  attempt  on  his  life  gave  Harley 
an  extraordinary  emotional  popularity.  Addresses 
and  letters  of  congratulation  on  his  escape  and  his 
recovery  from  the  wound  poured  in  to  him  from 
all  parts  of  the  country,  and  every  writer  of  verse 
addressed  to  him  an  ode  in  which  his  life  was 
declared  to  be  necessary  for  the  salvation  of 
England.  To  the  influence  arising  from  his 
mastery  of  parliamentary  details  was  now  added 


122  ROBERT   HARLEY 

a  personal  and  a  popular  sympathy.  "  I  hear," 
writes  one  of  Harley's  daughters  to  her  aunt, 
Abigail  Harley,  describing  his  reception  by  the 
House  of  Commons  after  his  recovery,  "the 
Speaker  made  a  very  fine  speech.  My  father  was 
received  in  a  very  extraordinary  manner;  there 
was  not  one  in  the  House  but  what  took  occasion 
to  make  their  compliments  to  him,  and  crowded 
about  him.  The  House  was  very  full."  Favoured 
by  the  sympathy  of  the  nation  and  his  sovereign, 
Harley  was  on  the  23rd  of  May  raised  to  the 
peerage  as  Earl  of  Oxford  and  Earl  Mortimer, 
and  on  the  29th  was  advanced  to  the  high  dignity 
of  Lord  Treasurer.  Thus  again,  whilst  giving  due 
credit  to  Harley  for  his  many  considerable  quali- 
ties, we  yet  see  him  singularly  assisted  by  com- 
paratively trivial  circumstances.  He  returned  to 
his  task  renewed  in  political  strength  by  an  event 
in  itself  of  no  importance. 

It  was  now  essential  for  his  policy  that  decided 
progress  should  at  once  be  made  towards  the  con- 
clusion of  a  peace  with  France.  **  We  must  have 
peace,  be  it  a  bad  or  a  good  one,"  wrote  Swift  in 
the  previous  March  ;  the  necessity  for  it  on  financial 
and  popular  grounds  was  now  still  more  urgent. 
In  the  beginning  of  171 1  informal  pourparlers 
had  commenced  between  Louis  and  the  Ministry 
through  the  agency  of  the  Abbd  Gaultier,  who, 
after  being  chaplain  to  Marshal  Tallard  during  his 


NEGOTIATIONS   WITH   FRANCE     123 

Embassy  to  England,  had  stayed  in  London  on  the 
same  mission  for  the  French  Government  as  De 
Foe  fulfilled  in  Scotland  for  Harley.  These  con- 
fidential communications  were  interrupted  by 
Barley's  wound  and  illness,  but  in  April  Gaultier 
for  the  second  time  returned  to  England,  bringing 
more  precise  but  yet  vague  terms  from  Louis. 
The  negotiations,  if  such  indeed  they  can  be  called, 
now — Harley  being  convalescent — took  a  more 
practical  and  active  turn.  But  the  Allies  could 
not  be  altogether  passed  over,  and  on  Gaultier's 
return  in  April  a  communication  was  made  to  the 
Dutch  Ministers,  in  which  these  vague  terms  from 
France  were  transmitted.  The  answer,  as  might 
be  expected,  was  a  request  for  further  particulars. 
But  affairs  were  growing  too  important  to  be 
entrusted  to  a  man  like  Gaultier,  who  by  his  mode 
of  life  was  inclined  to  place  too  much  value  on 
gossip  and  second-hand  news.  It  was  decided  to 
send  Prior  to  Paris,  and  so  he  departed  on  the  ist 
of  July  from  that  remarkable  and  agreeable  society 
of  politicians  and  men  of  letters  which  gathered 
round  the  Court  of  Anne.  His  mission,  kept 
secret  even  from  one  who  was  on  such  confidential 
terms  with  Harley  as  Swift,  concealed  too  from 
the  Dutch,  resulted  in  the  conclusion  of  the  pre- 
liminaries of  peace  on  the  27th  of  September. 

Of  these  negotiations  with  France  Marlborough 
was  kept  wholly  ignorant.     It  was  not  until  Sep- 


124  ROBERT  HARLEY 

tember  that  an  inquiry  from  him  elicited  from 
Harley  a  reply  entirely  couched  in  generalities,  and 
giving  no  details  of  the  important  steps  which 
were  being  taken  in  the  direction  of  peace.  Marl- 
borough reiterated  his  wish  for  a  speedy  end  of 
the  war  ;  some  months  later  he  expressed  the  same 
desire  to  the  Lord  Treasurer  in  still  stronger 
terms. 

In  October,  Marlborough  stated  that  he  was 
satisfied  with  everything  Harley  had  done ;  but 
on  his  return  to  England  later  in  the  month  his 
attitude  changed.  On  the  Continent  he  could  act 
on  his  own  opinion ;  at  home  he  was  strongly 
influenced  by  his  wife,  by  Godolphin,  and  the 
Whigs,  and  he  was  persuaded  by  them  to  become 
actively  hostile  to  Harley.  He  could  not  object  to 
peace,  but  he  could  oppose  the  proposed  terms, 
which  was  for  practical  purposes  the  same  thing ; 
and  so  he  remonstrated  personally  with  the  Queen 
against  the  preliminaries.  This  step  alone  was 
sufficient  to  place  the  Ministry  in  direct  conflict 
with  him.  Marlborough  never  braced  himself  to 
these  remonstrances  with  the  Queen  willingly,  but 
the  self-confidence  of  the  Whigs  did  not  allow 
them  to  see  the  danger  of  such  an  open  attack  on 
Harley.  On  December  the  7th,  Parliament  met, 
and  in  the  speech  from  the  Throne  spoken  by 
the  Queen  herself  she  said  that  **  notwithstanding 
the  acts  of  those  who  delight  in  war,  both  time 


JOHN   CHURCHILL,  DUKE   OF   MARLBOROUGH 

From  a  portrait  by  Sir  Godfrey  KticUcr  in  the  Xational  Fortrait  Gallery 


WHIG   AND   TORY   ALLIANCE     125 

and  place  are  appointed  for  opening  the  treaty  of 
a  general  peace."  These  decisive  words  were  a 
clear  warning  to  the  Whigs  that  Harley  and  the 
Queen  were  not  to  be  driven  from  the  policy  which 
they  had  laid  down  for  themselves. 

But  an  alliance  had  been  arranged  which,  as 
an  instance  of  political  immorality,  can  hardly  be 
matched  in  the  annals  of  our  party  system.  So 
hostile  were  the  Whigs  to  the  foreign  policy  of 
the  Government,  that,  to  obtain  the  assistance  of 
some  of  the  dissatisfied  and  more  bigoted  Tories, 
they  consented  to  support  a  Bill  similar  to  the 
measures  against  Occasional  Conformity,  which 
had  so  often  during  the  last  ten  years  been  brought 
into  Parliament.  The  principles  of  this  measure 
they  had  always  successfully  opposed ;  to  support 
it  was  to  act  against  the  political  convictions  by 
which  they  had  hitherto  been  guided.  The  result 
of  this  alliance,  from  which  the  Whigs  hoped  so 
much — "  it  is  Dismal  who  will  save  England  at 
last,"  ^  said  Wharton,  the  chief  manager  of  the  party, 
speaking  of  Nottingham  by  the  name  by  which 
from  his  melancholy  countenance  he  was  called 
alike  by  friends  and  foes  —  was  quickly  seen. 
Nottingham  at  once  moved  to  add  a  clause  to  the 
address  to  the  effect  that  no  peace  would  be  safe 
or  honourable  which  left  the  West  Indies  and 
Spain  in  the  hands  of  the  House  of  Bourbon. 
'^  Journal  to  Stella^  5th  December  171 1. 


126  ROBERT   HARLEY 

It  was  carried,  with  Marlborough's  support,  against 
the  Government  by  a  majority  of  64  to  52.^  But 
the  same  clause  was  rejected  in  the  House  of 
Commons  by  a  large  majority — 232  against  106.^ 
The  figures  in  both  Houses  are  important,  for  they 
show  with  the  utmost  plainness  that  Harley  was 
backed  by  the  House  of  Commons  and  was  certain 
of  popular  support. 

So  far,  indeed,  from  weakening  the  resolution 
of  the  Ministry,  this  action  of  the  House  of  Lords 
strengthened  Harley  and  Bolingbroke  in  their 
determination  to  conclude  peace  with  France,  even 
if  the  terms  of  it,  though  satisfactory  to  Great 
Britain,  should  not  be  approved  by  her  allies. 
For  in  the  tactics  of  the  opposition  the  Ministers 
perceived  the  result  of  intrigues  between  the  Dutch 
Minister  Buys,  Bothmar,  the  representative  of 
Hanover,  and  the  Whig  leaders — **the  General 
(Marlborough)  and  the  foreign  Ministers  have 
united  to  blow  up  this  which  will  turn  upon  them- 
selves," wrote  Harley  to  Lord  Strafford^  on  the 
day  after  the  memorable  division.  Some  justifi- 
cation therefore  existed  for  separate  negotiations 
between  England  and  France,  and  in  the  famous 
restraining  orders  to  which  allusion  will  presently 

1  Pari.  Htsti  vi.  1039. 

*  Pari.  Hist.j  vi.  1043. 

3  Bolingbroke  to  Lord  Strafford,  8th  December  171 1";  and 
Harley  to  Lord  Strafford,  of  same  ddXQ.-^Bolin^brokds  Corrcsp.y 
edited  by  Parke. 


AFFAIRS   ON   THE   CONTINENT     127 

be  made,  we  see  the  counter-move  of  Harley  and 
Bolingbroke  to  the  manoeuvre  of  the  Dutch. 

The  policy  of  the  Whigs  was  singularly  stupid  ; 
it  promised  as  the  sequel  to  splendid  victories, 
nothing  but  an  indefinite  continuance  of  the  war. 
They  lost  sight  of  the  changed  state  of  affairs 
on  the  Continent  and  in  England.  The  Emperor 
Joseph  had  died,  and  Charles  of  Austria,  the  can- 
didate of  the  Allies  for  the  Spanish  throne,  was 
the  new  Emperor ;  at  the  same  time  Louis  of 
Anjou,  the  nephew  of  the  French  King,  was  de 
facto  King  of  Spain.  The  Allies  had  no  one  to 
put  in  his  place,  for  the  union  of  the  Empire  and 
the  throne  of  Spain  was  admittedly  impossible. 
Apart  from  the  jealousies  it  would  create,  it 
threatened  that  balance  of  power  which  was  ever  in 
the  minds  of  the  statesmen  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries.  To  seek  for  another  candi- 
date was  to  open  the  door  to  intrigue,  and  to 
create  dissensions  among  all  the  continental  powers. 
Above  all,  the  power  of  the  French  King  was 
broken  and  humbled,  and  the  majority  of  the 
English  people  perceived  that  he  had  ceased  to 
be  a  menace  to  European  peace,  and  to  what  they 
valued  above  all,  the  principles  of  the  Revolution 
of  1688.  Year  after  year  enormous  sums  had 
been  raised  for  the  purposes  of  the  continually 
recurring  campaigns,  and  the  policy  of  Harley 
was  the  only  one  which  gave  the  least  hope  of 


128  ROBERT   HARLEY 

the  cessation  of  this  drain  on  the  manhood  and  the 
resources  of  England,  the  ''packhorse  of  the  war."^ 
The  first  move  in  the  alliance  of  the  Whigs 
and  dissatisfied  Tories  having  been  apparently  suc- 
cessful, the  second  had  now  to  take  place ;  and  so 
on  the  15th  of  December  171 1  the  Bill  against 
Occasional  Conformity  was  introduced  by  Notting- 
ham into  the  House  of  Lords,  and  presently  passed 
both  Houses  without  opposition.^  The  action  of 
the  Whigs  has  been  excused  by  Mr.  Lecky  on  the 
ground  that  as  the  Bill  had  three  times  been  passed 
by  the  House  of  Commons,  and  as  the  country 
had  been  shown  to  be  on  the  side  of  the  High 
Church  party,  the  Lords  should  not  have  put 
a  permanent  veto  on  the  measure.  But  the 
Whig  peers  were  certainly  guided  by  no  such 
academic  constitutionalism,  as  De  Foe  among 
others  plainly  perceived,  and  had  they  been  actu- 
ated by  the  modern  democratic  theories  which 
have  been  ascribed  to  them,^  they  would  not  have 
opposed  the  Ministry,  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
the  nation  in  their  desire  to  conclude  peace.  The 
Bill  was  one  contrary  to  every  principle  which 
Harley  valued,  and  it  may  therefore  be  asked 
how  it  came  to  pass  unopposed.  The  answer  is 
obvious.  However  personally  distasteful  this 
measure  might  be  to  the  Lord  Treasurer,  he  did 

^  Lord  Strafford  to  Electress  Sophia,  Stowe  MS.,  p.  224. 

2  Pari.  Htst.i  vi.  1046.  •  Lecky,  History  of  England^  i.  94. 


OCCASIONAL   CONFORMITY,   1711    129 

not  dare  to  lose  the  support  of  his  party  by  oppos- 
ing it,  even  if  opposition  under  the  circumstances 
could  have  been  effectual,  which  it  certainly  would 
not,  for  the  political  treachery  of  the  Whigs  made 
the  Bill  sure  to  become  law.  Nor  from  some 
points  of  view  could  Harley  pretend  to  regret 
that  this  question  so  perpetually  arising  should  be 
set  at  rest,  at  least  for  a  time ;  for  the  passing  of 
this  Bill  removed  a  subject  from  parliamentary 
discussion  on  which  it  was  impossible  for  him  to 
act  without  offending  either  his  Tory  supporters 
or  his  Dissenting  friends.  De  Foe,  overlooking 
this  aspect  of  the  matter,  and  eager  in  the  cause 
of  toleration,  suggested  to  Harley  a  bold  way  to 
destroy  the  Bill. 

**  I  confess  myself,"  he  writes,  **so  much  sur- 
prised with  the  particulars  which  your  Lordship 
did  me  the  honour  to  communicate  to  me  on 
Tuesday  of  the  conduct  of  a  set  of  men  with 
respect  to  the  Dissenters,  that  I  could  not  express 
myself  on  several  things  needful  to  be  observed  to 
you  on  the  occasion,  which  defect,  according  to  the 
freedom  you  are  pleased  to  allow  me,  I  supply  in 
this  manner. 

*'  And  first,  in  the  midst  of  my  real  and  just 

concern  for  the  interest  of  the  Dissenters,  which  I 

look  upon  as  ruined,   I  cannot  but  look  up  with 

thankfulness  in  your   behalf  that   the   mouths   of 

9 


130  ROBERT   HARLEY 

your  enemies  are  most  effectually  stopped  in  offer- 
ing to  lay  the  reproach  of  their  disaster  upon  your 
Lordship,  which  is  most  apparently  the  effect  of  an 
implacable,  but  I  hope  impotent,  aversion  to  you, 
and  of  a  manifest  resolution  to  injure  and  insult 
you.  Had  it  not  been  too  late  to  retrieve  the 
injury,  I  should  have  rejoiced  also  in  behalf  of  the 
Dissenters,  that  the  idols  they  adored  have  appeared 
capable  of  so  mean  a  step  as  to  sell  the  party  that 
ventured  their  safety  on  the  leaky  bottom  of  a 
supposed  zeal,  into  perpetual  Tory  bondage  to 
form  a  new  interest  for  the  supporting  their  party 
designs ;  but  this  joy  is  like  singing  a  psalm  at  a 
funeral,  too  sad  to  be  sonorous. 

**  As  you  have  for  the  sake  of  a  little  sincerity 
borne  with  a  great  deal  of  coarse  and  unpolished 
plainness  from  me,  indulging  a  freedom  which  I 
have  no  title  to  but  from  your  own  goodness,  so  I 
beg  you  to  bear  with  one  humble  motion  in  behalf 
of  an  interest  which  I  know  your  Lordship  has 
been  a  patron  of,  which  has  been  valued  by  you, 
and  which,  though  the  usage  of  some  of  the  people 
to  you  has  been  inexcusable,  yet  I  am  fully  per- 
suaded you  have  still  at  heart ;  I  mean  that  of  the 
Dissenters. 

"There  remains  but  one  point  between  them 
and  the  fate  of  their  whole  cause,  viz.  Her  Majesty 
passing  or  not  passing  the  Bill.  I  know  the  negative 
is   not  without   its   hazard,  and   many  watch  the 


DE  FOE  AND  THE  DISSENTERS    131 

advantage.  But  Her  Majesty  has  solemnly  passed 
her  royal  promise  to  the  Dissenters  to  preserve 
the  toleration  inviolable.  I  know  my  duty  too 
well  to  enter  on  any  argument  on  the  consistency 
of  passing  this  Bill  with  the  keeping  this  promise, 
yet  I  could  not  satisfy  myself,  neither  in  duty  to 
the  Dissenters'  interest  or  the  immediate  interest 
of  your  Lordship,  without  humbly  moving  you  in 
this  case,  viz.  how  effectually  it  would  bind  to 
your  interest,  and  to  Her  Majesty's  person  and 
Government  and  to  all  your  just  measures,  the 
whole  body  of  the  Dissenters,  and  Low  Church- 
men also,  who  are  as  ill-pleased  as  any ;  how 
effectually  it  would  bring  in  those  very  people  who 
have  suffered  this  chicane  of  a  party  to  be  passed 
upon  them,  and  are  raging  with  shame  and  con- 
fusion at  what  they  have  done ;  how  effectually  it 
would  rivet  your  Lordship  in  the  hearts  of  all  good 
men,  silence  past  unjust  clamours,  and  powerfully 
establish  your  Lordship  as  the  protector  of  liberty, 
the  patron  of  justice,  and  the  true  refuge  of  an 
injured  people — all  this,  I  firmly  believe,  with  a 
blessing  from  Heaven,  would  be  the  consequence, 
if  Her  Majesty,  in  maintenance  of  her  sacred 
promise  aforesaid,  may  be  advised  to  refuse  this  Bill. 
**God  Almighty  give  your  Lordship  wisdom 
and  counsel  from  Himself  to  direct  in  an  affair  of 
so  nice  but  important  consequences,  so  as  may 
issue  in    His   glory,   your  own   blessing,    and   an 


132  ROBERT   HARLEY 

innocent  people's  deliverance ;   asking  pardon  for 
this  freedom."^ 

This  advice  was  far  too  drastic  even  for  a  bolder 
man  than  Harley  to  follow,  but  we  like  De  Foe 
all  the  better  for  giving  it. 

Harley 's  policy  was  now  to  combat  the  active 
and  deadly  hostility  of  the  Whigs  by  action 
equally  resolute.  The  Commissioners  who  had 
been  appointed  to  investigate  the  charges  brought 
against  Marlborough  of  illegally  appropriating 
public  monies  to  his  own  use,  were  ordered  by 
the  House  of  Commons  instantly  to  report  their 
proceedings.  This  report — very  adverse  to  the 
Duke,  and  in  parts  unjust — was  amply  sufficient 
for  the  purposes  of  the  Ministry. 

Yet  all  this  time  the  exultation  of  the  Whigs  was 
unbounded,  while  the  Tories  were  correspondingly 
depressed.  Even  those  who  were  most  favourable 
to  the  Ministry  foretold  its  fall :  the  Queen  was 
false  to  it,  the  Duchess  of  Somerset  had  gained 
so  large  an  influence  over  her  that  Harley  s  period 
of  power  was  nearly  ended — such  sayings  were  in 
the  mouths  of  those  who  frequented  Westminster 
and  Kensington,  while  Bolingbroke,  Swift,  and 
Lewis,  each  a  representative  of  a  different  section 
of  the  Tory  party,  were  at  one  moment  hopeful, 
at  another  so  depressed  that  they  could  think  of 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  130. 


DISMISSAL   OF  MARLBOROUGH   133 

nothing  but   the   best   arrangements   to   make   in 
view  of  the  imminent  victory  of  the  Whigs. 

In  this  feverish  excitement,  amid  these  hopes 
and  fears,  Harley  went  about  his  business  with  a 
quiet  confidence  which  surprised  those  who  met 
him.  '*A11  will  be  well,"  he  said  to  incredulous 
hearers.  No  one  knew  his  plans,  every  one  tried 
to  guess  his  schemes,  while  the  half- contemptuous 
and  half-humorous  reticence  which  marked  his 
manner  vexed  and  perplexed  his  friends.  At  last 
the  blow  fell,  and  on  30th  December  the  Duke  of 
Marlborough  was  dismissed,  and  twelve  new  peers 
were  created.  Harley  had  thus  again  a  majority  in 
the  House  of  Lords  on  which  he  could  now  depend. 
The  crisis  was  at  an  end,  the  Tories  were  once 
more  firmly  fixed  in  power ;  it  was  the  supreme  and 
most  striking  moment  of  Harley 's  political  life. 

If  we  look  at  these  facts  dispassionately,  it  is 
clear  that  Harley  was  fully  justified  in  his  action 
at  this  time. 

No  one  perceived  more  clearly  than  he  the 
general  desire  of  the  English  people — even  of  the 
English  soldiers — for  peace  with  France,  daily 
more  conscious  as  they  were  of  the  burdens  and 
distresses  of  the  never-ending  European  campaigns. 
No  one  saw  more  accurately  that  the  outbreak  of 
popular  enthusiasm  for  the  Church  of  England, 
which  had  had  apparently  so  important  and  so 
adverse  an  influence  on  Godolphin's  position  just 


134  ROBERT   HARLEY 

before  he  fell,  was  one  of  those  evanescent,  though 
striking,  expressions  of  popular  feeling,  the  import- 
ance   of    which    is    easily    overrated.       Religious 
conflicts   evoke    passion    in   a   high    degree,    and 
priestly  enthusiasm  can  always  raise  some  follow- 
ing.    But  that  these  movements  are  not  necessarily 
lasting  or  deep,  the  fleeting  popularity  of  Sache- 
verell  shows.      The  populace  joined  in  the  move- 
ment which  this  hot-headed  divine  did  so  much  to 
stimulate,  not  little  because  it  was  the  easiest  and 
most  ready  means  of  showing  their  present  discon- 
tent with  and  their  objection  to  the  Ministry  which 
happened  to  be  in  power.    The  mob  which  shouted 
for    Sacheverell   cared    little   that   the   Church   of 
England    should    be    pulchra,    sttavis    et    decora. 
Blinded  by  their  desire  for  the  supremacy  of  the 
Church,   Atterbury  and   the   clergy  who  followed 
him  imagined  that  the  people  were  in   favour  of 
the  divine  right  of  kings,  a  doctrine  which,  as  has 
been  well  said,  was  in  itself  a  condemnation  of  the 
Revolution.     At  a  later  date — on  the  death  of  the 
Queen — the  tranquillity  with  which  the  change  of 
sovereign   was   received    showed    how    little    real 
support  the  High  Churchmen  had  in  the  country 
— a  fact  which  no  one  perceived  more  clearly  than 
the   Lord  Treasurer,  who   realised   that   the  true 
force  of  the  hostility  to  Godolphin's   Ministry  was 
the  national  desire  for  peace. 

Marlborough  having  definitely  and  deliberately 


HARLEY'S   CREATION   OF   PEERS     135 

allied  himself  with  the  Whigs  in  opposition  to 
Harley's  policy,  his  disgrace  had  become  a  political 
necessity.  If  we  regard  his  weakness  in  connection 
with  money  matters,  it  appears  so  trivial  in  com- 
parison with  his  splendid  military  services,  that  it  is 
not  surprising  that  some  have  said  he  fell  a  victim 
to  faction  and  to  national  ingratitude.  But  if 
Harley  had  not  taken  this  decisive  step,  would  the 
Peace  of  Utrecht  have  been  signed  ?  He  could 
act  as  he  did  because  he  was  strong  by  reason  of 
his  knowledge  of  the  temper  of  the  country,  and 
because  he  was  certain  that  he  was  supported  by 
the  people  and  by  the  Queen.  In  converting  a 
Whig  majority  in  the  House  of  Lords  into  a 
minority  by  a  measure  so  drastic  as  the  creation  of 
a  number  of  new  peers,  he  was  acting  as  the 
champion  of  the  House  of  Commons  against  the 
arrogance  of  a  group  of  Whig  noblemen  who  held 
control  of  the  House  of  Lords.  He  was  as  fully 
justified  in  this  step  as  Lord  Grey  would  have  been 
in  1832,  had  he  carried  into  action  his  threat  to 
advise  the  creation  of  peers  in  order  to  obtain  the 
passing  of  the  Reform  Bill.  On  each  occasion  the 
Prime  Minister  used  the  royal  prerogative  to  enforce 
the  will  of  the  people;  on  each  occasion,  too,  he 
was  a  man  of  steady  judgment,  who  yet  had  at  a 
national  crisis  the  courage  and  boldness  in  the  one 
case  to  adopt,  in  the  other  to  threaten  to  employ, 
a  very  extraordinary  measure,  at  a  moment  when 


136  ROBERT  HARLEY 

boldness  was  vital  to  the  success  of  the  policy  to 
carry  out  which  each  had  been  raised  to  power. 
Yet  one  Prime  Minister  was  nominally  a  Tory  and 
the  other  a  Liberal.  Strangely  enough,  it  was  the 
Tory  statesman  who  created  a  fundamental  con- 
stitutional precedent.  Bolingbroke  had  no  share  in 
this  important  action ;  if  his  own  statement  is  to  be 
believed — and  on  this  point  it  may  be — he  regarded 
the  creation  of  new  peers  as  "an  unprecedented 
and  invidious  measure,  to  be  excused  by  nothing 
but  the  necessity,  and  hardly  by  that " — a  step  to 
which  Harley  had  been  "  forced "  by  political 
necessity.  He  did  not  perceive  that  only  a  states- 
man imbued  by  tradition  and  by  training  with 
a  belief  in  the  supreme  power  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  impressed  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
will  of  the  people  from  a  long  and  constant  study 
of  public  opinion,  so  far  as  it  could  be  ascertained 
in  that  age,  would  have  ventured  to  advise  the 
Queen  to  exercise  the  prerogative  of  the  Crown  in 
a  manner  so  new  and  so  modern. 

Harley's  conduct  at  this  critical  time  was  that 
of  a  Liberal  statesman.  He  was  fighting  against 
aristocratic  pretensions,  for  peace  and  for  retrench- 
ment, and  yet  he  was  the  head  of  a  Tory  party  of 
which  many  of  the  High-flyers  were  Jacobites. 
"Early  impressions,"  says  Goethe,  "can  never  be 
shaken  off,"  and  Harley  throughout  the  whole  of 
his  political  life  felt  the  influence  of  those  principles 


ATTACK  ON  TERMS  OF  PEACE  137 

which  his  father  and  his  grandfather  had  professed, 
and  which  they  had  taught  him  in  his  youth.  But 
he  would  have  been  a  more  consistent  poHtician  if 
he  could  have  forgotten  them  altogether.  At  no 
moment,  however,  did  he  so  certainly  maintain  the 
principles  of  democratic  government,  as  when — 
backed  up,  it  is  true,  by  the  Queen — he  overthrew 
the  Whigs,  who  thought  with  the  world-famous 
name  of  Marlborough  to  destroy  his  adminis- 
tration. 

Once  again,  after  this  apparently  overwhelming 
defeat,  it  seemed  as  though  the  Whigs  were  about 
to  resume  their  attempts  to  destroy  Harley  s  ad- 
ministration, and  with  it  the  hopes  of  the  people 
for  peace;  for  "on  15th  February  171 2,  Halifax 
carried  a  motion  against  the  terms  of  peace  as 
then  formulated  by  the  French  plenipotentiaries 
at  Utrecht.  Harley  allowed  it  to  pass  without 
a  division,  and  one  may  perhaps,  considering 
the  terms  of  confidence  which  existed  between 
Halifax  and  Harley,  suspect  that  the  motion  was 
not  altogether  undesired  by  the  Ministry,  since  if 
carried  it  would  necessarily  strengthen  it  in  the 
formal  negotiations  which  had  commenced  and  were 
ultimately  concluded  by  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  on 
the  31st  of  March  1713. 

These  negotiations  it  is  not  proposed  to  follow, 
for  unquestionably  the  chief  actor  in  them  from  the 
beginning  was  not  Harley  but    Bolingbroke,  who 


138  ROBERT   HARLEY 

conducted  them  with  unwearied  patience,  sagacity, 
and  resolution. 

So  many  and  various  national  interests  were 
involved  that  they  were  singularly  complex.  The 
object  of  the  Ministry  of  Queen  Anne  was  clear  :  to 
obtain  from  France  peace  on  reasonable  terms,  but 
not  to  exact  from  Louis  the  extreme  demands  of 
the  Allies,  demands  which  might  result  again,  as 
they  had  in  previous  years,  in  an  indefinite  continua- 
tion of  hostilities.  The  situation  was  curiously 
complicated,  for  the  two  open  enemies,  France  and 
England,  understood  each  other,  and  can  hardly  be 
regarded  as  actually  hostile ;  but  the  Dutch  and  the 
Allies  were  jealous  of  this  country,  which  had  been 
their  paymaster,  and  they  were  actuated  by  self- 
interest  and  conflicting  ambitions.  But  whilst 
abroad  the  Ministry  was  embarrassed  by  allies  who 
were  neither  frank  nor  friendly,  it  had  at  home 
to  encounter  in  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  a 
persistent  and  violent  opposition.  It  is  often  said 
that  party  strife  ceases  in  national  emergencies,  or 
when  the  Administration  is  involved  in  delicate 
negotiations  with  foreign  powers.  But  in  this 
initial  period  of  the  modern  political  system,  foreign 
affairs  afforded  the  commonest  subject  for  the 
bitterest  and  most  harassing  party  attacks.  These 
in  the  Commons  it  fell  to  Bolingbroke  to  repel ;  in 
the  Upper  House  the  task  was  Harley's.  During 
these  difficult  negotiations   Harley  was  cognisant 


NEGOTIATIONS   FOR  PEACE       139 

of  their  course,  sometimes  intervening  in  them, 
but  their  general  direction  he  entrusted  to  the 
Secretary,  on  whom  he  then  thoroughly  relied. 

*'  II  ne  me  sera  necessaire  non  plus  de  vous 
parler  du  g^nie,  ni  de  I'esprit  de  ce  seigneur; 
vous  en  etes  d^ja  convaingu  par  tout  le  cours  de  la 
n^gociation.  II  suffit  de  vous  dire  que  nous  nous 
reposons  sur  ses  soins  pour  en  voir  la  fin,  et  de  vous 
assurer  que  vous  trouverez  en  lui,  au-dessus  de  toutes 
les  autres  belles  qualites  qu'il  possede,  un  desir  plus 
ardent  du  monde  pour  hater  le  repos  de  I'Europe."  ^ 

It  was  in  these  generous  terms  that  Harley 
wrote  to  De  Torcy  shortly  before  Bolingbroke  pro- 
ceeded on  the  embassy  to  Paris  which  hastened 
the  conclusion  of  peace.  The  finances  of  the 
country,  the  management  of  the  two  Houses  of 
Parliament,  the  arrangements  with  the  Queen — 
these  were  his  more  immediate  care. 

But  though  the  collective  responsibility  of 
Ministers  had  not  reached  its  modern  extent,  it 
is  not  possible  to  give  either  the  whole  credit  for 
the  conclusion  of  peace  or  discredit  attaching  to 
any  part  of  the  negotiation  to  Bolingbroke  alone. 
For  the  famous  restraining  orders  Harley  must  be 
regarded  as  responsible  as  Bolingbroke,  though  it 
was   by  the   Secretary   of  State   that   they   were 

^  Morrison  Collection  of  MSS.,  ist  series,  vol.  v.  p.  79. 


140  ROBERT  HARLEY 

sent.^  They  form  apparently  so  singular  a  piece 
of  diplomacy  that  they  cannot  be  overlooked  in 
any  sketch  of  Harley's  political  career.  It  was 
in  May  17 12  that  the  negotiations  arrived  at  a 
phase  so  favourable,  in  the  opinion  of  the  English 
Ministers,  to  peace,  that  Bolingbroke  on  the  loth 
despatched  to  Ormond,  who  in  the  beginning  of 
the  month  had  assumed  command  of  the  English 
army  in  place  of  Marlborough,  directions  not  to 
engage  in  a  battle  or  undertake  a  siege  until 
further  orders,  and  to  keep  these  instructions 
secret.  Information  of  these  facts  was  also  sent 
to  Mardchal  Villars,  the  French  General.  The 
position  could  not  but  be  humiliating  to  the  English 
commander,  and  in  his  letters  to  Harley  he  did  not 
conceal  his  vexation.^  It  was  not  surprising  that 
Harley  should  not  reply  to  Ormond,  a  leading 
member,  though  he  was  of  the  Tory  party.  To 
a  General  there  could  be  no  defence  for  such 
orders.  Their  justification  existed  in  the  abnormal 
state  of  affairs.  There  was  more  cordiality 
between  France  and  England  than  between 
England  and  Holland  ;  there  was  a  sincerer  wish 
for  peace  among  the  statesmen  of  France  and 
England  than  among  those  of  Holland  and 
Germany.      The    only    argument    to    which    the 

^  For  a  gossiping  suggestion  that  Harley  alone  was  responsible, 
see  Burnett's  History  of  his  Own  Times  (Hardwick's  note),  vi.  128. 

*  Harley  Papers,  iii.  176.  Hodgkin  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.  Com., 
15th  Rep.  App.  pt.  ii.  pp.  208,  212. 


THE  RESTRAINING  ORDERS     141 

Dutch  would  yield  was  that  of  self-interest,  and 
the  object  of  these  orders — in  addition  to  that  of 
preventing  a  useless  bloodshed  during  a  period  of 
negotiation — was  to  prove  to  the  Allies  the  necessity 
of  concluding  peace  by  the  danger  to  which  their 
armies  would  be  exposed  without  the  assistance 
of  Great  Britain.  "The  Allies,"  wrote  the  Lord 
Treasurer,  when  at  last  he  broke  silence,  "might 
see  what  they  had  lost  by  Her  Majesty's  with- 
drawing her  forces."^  The  parliamentary  apologia 
fell  wholly  to  Harley.  Ormond,  he  said,  had  been 
ordered  not  to  risk  a  battle,  but  he  had  liberty 
to  besiege  a  town ;  an  inaccurate  quibble  which 
was  easily  disposed  of  by  the  Duke  of  Marl- 
borough, who  quietly  asked  what  was  to  happen 
if  in  the  course  of  a  siege  an  attack  was  made  by 
the  enemy.  An  adverse  vote  was  averted  only 
by  an  undertaking  that  the  Ministry  would  not 
conclude  a  separate  peace. ^  Wholly  different  was 
Bolingbroke's  action,  since  on  the  very  day  of  the 
debate  he  was  writing  vigorously  to  Ormond  that 
the  Queen's  orders  "were  founded  on  the  most 
just  as  well  as  most  prudent  considerations,"  and 
that  Ormond  was  to  find  "  the  most  plausible 
pretence"  he  could  "of  sending  a  trumpet  to 
Mar^chal  Villars.     You  are  to  inform  that  General 


1  Hodgkin  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.  Com.,  15th  Rep.  App.  pt.  ii.  p.  213. 
August  5-16,  17 1 2. 

'^  Pari,  /^/j/.,  vi.  1135. 


142  ROBERT  HARLEY 

of  the  true  state  of  this  affair ;  you  are  to  acquaint 
him  that  we  shall  not  continue  long  in  this 
uncertain  condition,  since  in  a  few  days  we 
shall  expect  to  hear  that  the  peace  is  secure."^ 

The  Treaty  of  Utrecht  has  often  been  severely 
criticised,  and  the  Whigs,  actuated  primarily  by 
purely  party  motives,  before  and  after  it  was 
ratified  never  ceased  to  condemn  it,  though  we 
can  estimate  the  value  of  some  of  their  strictures 
by  the  private  approval  of  Halifax  of  the  peace 
which  Harley  and  Bolingbroke  had  secured. 
Nothing,  however,  is  easier  than  to  attack  the 
terms  of  a  treaty,  and  the  more  distant  it  is, 
the  less  difficult  becomes  academic  criticism. 
For  a  just  appreciation  of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht 
one  must  comprehend  accurately  the  temper  at 
the  time  of  the  English  people,  the  unexampled 
increase  of  taxation  and  of  the  National  Debt,  and 
the  difficulty  of  recruiting,  as  well  as  the  policy,  the 
action,  and  the  intentions  of  our  continental  allies. 
The  people  of  England  peremptorily  demanded 
peace,  and  the  Ministry  gave  them  peace.  It  is 
not  necessary  that  the  historian  should  approve  all 
its  terms,  but  he  has  to  note  the  cardinal  fact,  that 
where  Godolphin's  Ministry  failed  that  of  Harley 
succeeded.  In  practical  life  every  bargain  results 
from  compromises ;  to  gain  here,  it  is  necessary  to 
relinquish  there ;  and  international  contracts  are 
1  Bolingbrokis  Correspondence^  i.  514.    See  note,  p.  145. 


THE  TREATY  OF  UTRECHT      143 

preceded  by  similar  negotiations.  We  must  look 
at  the  sum  of  the  whole  matter,  bearing  in  mind, 
as  best  we  can,  all  the  circumstances  of  the  time. 
Placing  one's  self  in  the  position  of  a  candid  and 
just -minded  contemporary,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  policy  of  Harley  was  worthy  of  the 
national  aprroval.  Much  may  be  urged  against 
the  secret  manner  in  which  from  time  to  time 
the  negotiations  were  carried  on ;  but  there  is 
this  to  be  said  for  Harley  and  his  Ministry,  that 
previous  negotiations  in  1709  and  17 10  had  been 
largely  unsuccessful  owing  to  the  uncompromis- 
ing attitude  and  the  unreasonable  demands  of  the 
Allies.  Thus  a  separate  and  secret  preliminary 
negotiation  with  France  alone  was  most  likely 
to  result  in  a  peace.  Nor — if  occasion  had  offered 
—  would  Holland,  jealous  of  the  commercial 
benefits  which  Great  Britain  would  obtain,  have 
hesitated,  if  by  separate  action  she  could  have 
gained  special  advantages  for  herself.^  In  the 
result  the  impressive  fact  was  clear,  that  the  war 
had  been  successful  and  that  peace  was  restored. 
Harley  and  Bolingbroke  had  rightly  interpreted 
and  faithfully  fulfilled  the  will  of  the  English 
people.  The  unbounded  pretensions  of  France 
had  been  stayed;  the  ultimate  succession  of 
the    Elector    to    the    English    throne   was    safe- 

^  See  the  correspondence  between   Petkum  and  Torcy,  Hist. 
MSS.  Com.,  14th  Rep.  App.  pt.  ix.  p.  32Q. 


144  ROBERT   HARLEY 

guarded ;  Gibraltar  became  an  English  fortress  ; 
the  seaboard  of  Canada  and  the  territory  of 
Hudson  Bay,  with  all  their  future  potentialities, 
were  ceded  to  Great  Britain  ;  the  assiento  contract 
which  the  Dutch  desired  for  themselves  was  trans- 
ferred to  England ;  and,  for  a  time,  the  friendship 
of  France  was  gained.  Above  all,  the  inestimable 
blessing  of  a  much-desired  peace  was  secured.^ 

^  No  fact  more  strikingly  illustrates  the  burden  which  the  war  of 
the  Spanish  Succession  had  become,  than  the  rapid  increase  of  the 
National  Debt — 

1688,  National  Debt,  ;^664,263.    Annual  charge,  ;^39,855 

1702  „  12,767,000  „  1,215,324 

1 7 14  »  36,000,000  „  3^063,135 

According  to  the  statement  supplied  to  the  Commissioners  for  the 

Union  in  1706,  the  revenue  of  England  was  then  ;^5,69i,8o3. 


¥ 


CHAPTER  VII 

LAST  YEARS  OF  POWER 

1711-1714 

Harley's  Financial  Policy— The  South  Sea  Scheme— De 
Foe's  Influence  on  it— Estrangement  of  Harley  and 
bolingbroke  on  conclusion  of  peace— defeat  of  the 
Government  on  the  Commercial  Treaty  with  France- 
Differences  IN  THE  Political  Views  of  Harley  and  Boling- 
broke— Advisers  of  the  Elector  doubt  Harley's  Good 
Faith— The  Schism  Bill— The  Struggle  between  Harley 

AND   BOLINGBROKE— Fall  OF   HARLEY— CAUSES  OF  HIS    FALL — 

Death  of  the  Queen. 

THE  national  finances  rather  than  the  negotia- 
tions with  France  engrossed  Harley's  atten- 
tion during  his  administration.  Great  sums  of  money 
had  been  spent  on  the  war,  and  more  was  continually 
needed.  The  Minister  who  has  charge  of  the 
Exchequer  is  never  without  correspondents  who 
volunteer  their  advice ;  and  throughout  his  official 
career  Harley  constantly  received  any  number  of 
suggestions  as  to  the  best  manner  of  raising  funds 
with  the  least  possible  burden  to  the  people.  Some 
of  the  ideas  placed  before  him  were  sensible,  most 
were  fantastic.  But  each  paper,  with  characteristic 
care,  he  considered  and  preserved,  and  they  are  still 
to  be  seen  in  the  library  at  Welbeck  Abbey,  often 

lO 


146  ROBERT  HARLEY 

endorsed  in  Harley  s  own  hand  with  the  date,  and 
sometimes  with  a  note  upon  their  value  or  contents. 
In  the  spring  of  171 1,  before  his  illness,  he  had 
begun  to  develop  his  plans,  the  South  Sea  scheme 
being  the  mainspring  of  his  financial  policy.  It 
was  based  on  the  same  principles  as  the  Bank  of 
England,  and  as  his  abortive  Land  Bank  of  1704, 
its  object  being  to  place  a  portion  of  the  un- 
funded debt  with  a  number  of  individuals,  some  of 
whom  were  already  Government  creditors,  holders 
of  army  and  navy  debentures,  not  charged,  how- 
ever, on  any  special  fund.  Dreams  of  the  wealth 
of  the  Indies  and  the  Spanish  Main,  which  had 
stimulated  the  Elizabethan  seamen,  still  lingered  in 
men's  minds,  though  their  energies  were  differently 
directed.  The  new  plan  was  essentially  fitted  to 
meet  the  somewhat  visionary  ideas  of  the  older 
age,  and  the  more  modern  commercial  instincts  of 
the  existing  community.  The  project  had  a  most 
specious  appearance ;  it  seemed  to  be  formed  to 
encourage  and  to  reward  private  enterprise,  and 
to  support  it  by  the  assistance  of  the  Government, 
thus  giving  to  a  purely  speculative  undertaking  an 
appearance  of  commercial  solidity  which  it  certainly 
did  not  possess.  The  resolutions  embodying 
Harley's  plans  passed  the  House  of  Commons  on 
2nd  May,^  and  later  came  the  South  Sea  Act,^  **  for 
making  up  deficiencies   and  satisfying  the  public 

^  Pari.  Hist.y  vi.  1022.  *  9  Anne,  c.  21. 


SOUTH   SEA   SCHEME  147 

debt ;  and  for  erecting  a  Corporation  to  carry  out 
a  trade  in  the  South  Seas ;  and  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  the  fishery,  and  for  liberty  to  trade  in 
immigration,  and  to  repeal  the  Acts  for  registering 
seamen." 

From  this  legislation  for  the  relief  of  the  public 
credit  and  the  enlarging  of  British  commerce,  there 
resulted  the    "Company   of  Merchants    of  Great 
Britain  trading  to  the  South  Seas  and  the  other 
parts  of  America,  "of  which  Harley  became  governor, 
and   St.  John,  and  Benson,  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,   two  of  the   first   directors.     It   came 
into  being   on   7th    September    171 1,   and   on   its 
formation   the    floating   debt   of  ten   millions  was 
assigned  to  the  new  Corporation,  with  a  guaranteed 
interest  at  the  rate  of  six  per  cent.    To  the  Company 
was  also  granted  a  nominal  monopoly  of  the  trade 
in  the  South  Seas — nominal  because  the  English 
statute  could  only  give  an  exclusive  right  of  trade 
to  this    Corporation  as  against  English   subjects. 
However  visionary  the  commercial  advantages  of 
this  scheme  may  have  been,  the  speculation  which 
it  created,  and  the  ruin  which  followed  in  1720,  were 
in  no  sense  necessary  sequels   to    Harley  s  plan. 
The  speculation  in  which,  a  few  years  hence,  high 
and  low,  politicians  and  the  public,  madly  rushed, 
arose  from  one  of  those  financial  fevers  from  which, 
from  time  to  time,  England  has  suffered.     In  its 
inception   the    enterprise    had,    as    against    other 


148  ROBERT   HARLEY 

English  traders,  a  monopoly,  and  in  India  and  North 
America  two  great  monopolistic  Corporations  were 
then  achieving  success.  It  looked  for  its  immediate 
profit  to  a  sure  and  undoubted  source  of  revenue 
— the  slave  trade.  No  word  at  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century  was  more  commonly  heard 
among  merchants  than  assiento,  by  which  was 
understood  the  right  to  supply  the  Spanish  colonies 
with  slaves.  By  the  preliminaries  of  peace  signed 
in  September  1711,  this  right,  hitherto  enjoyed  by 
the  French,  and  which  the  Dutch  would  only  have 
been  too  glad  to  obtain,  was  to  be  granted  ex- 
clusively to  the  English,  Louis  relinquishing  a 
privilege  which  was  regarded  as  of  the  highest 
commercial  value.  How  closely,  therefore,  this 
Company  was  associated  with  Harley's  administra- 
tion, how  much  the  success  of  his  chief  financial 
scheme  was  involved  with  the  success  of  his  main 
political  object,  is  obvious.  No  wonder  that,  when, 
during  the  course  of  the  negotiations,  De  Torcy  told 
him  that  the  article  in  regard  to  the  Spanish  trade 
"was  impossible  to  be  granted,"  Prior  should  write — 

**  My  heart  ached  extremely,  and  I  was  ready 
to  sink,  but,  recollecting  myself,  I  thought  it  time 
to  say  that  if  this  was  to  continue  a  maxim  I  was 
very  sorry  that  my  coming  hither  was  of  no  effect, 
and  that  I  looked  upon  myself  as  very  unhappy, 
while  I  told  him  with  the  same  plainness,  ouveriure 


SOUTH   SEA   SCHEME  149 

de  coeur,  that  he  used  to  me,  that  it  was  impossible 
that  peace  should  be  made  on  any  other  condition."  ^ 

The  loss  of  the  treaty  would  have  caused  the 
failure  of  this  plan  ;  the  signing  of  the  preliminaries 
assured  its  success. 

But  though  the  principle  of  the  South  Sea 
scheme  was  similar  to  that  of  the  Land  Bank  of 
1704,  many  things  suggest  that  its  inception  was 
largely  due  to  De  Foe.  On  17th  July  171 1,  a 
remarkable  letter  to  Harley  clearly  points  to  previous 
communications  between  them  on  this  subject.  **  In 
pursuance,"  De  Foe  begins, **of  your  lordship's  orders 
of  putting  my  thoughts  in  writing  on  the  subject  of 
the  trade  to  the  South  Seas,  I  have  enclosed  to  you 
a  short  general."     Then  follows  a  memorandum  : — 

"I.  Respecting  the  Government,  that  a  debt  of 
nine  millions  be  at  once  satisfied,  and  the  Govern- 
ment eased  of  so  great  a  demand. 

"  2.  That  the  creditors  for  that  debt  may  receive 
some  advantage  above  their  6  per  cent.,  that  may 
be  so  considerable  as  to  raise  their  actions,  and 
make  them  gainers  by  their  subscription."  ^ 

This  was  exactly  the  object  of  Harley 's  policy. 
But  De  Foe  was  too  clear-headed  to  overlook  the 
dangers  which  threatened  the  Company,  and  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  point  them  out — that  though 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  36.  ^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  50. 


150  ROBERT   HARLEY 

possessed  of  a  monopoly  in  name,  the  Company  had 
not  one  in  fact. 

On  23rd  July  De  Foe  writes  again.  From 
the  commencement  of  the  letter  it  is  obvious  that 
for  some  years  schemes  for  trading  in  the  South 
Seas  had  long  been  fermenting  in  his  ever-active 
brain,  and  had  been  formulated  and  submitted 
to  the  late  King — 

**  The  two  papers  I  have  already  sent  your 
Lordship  were  only  the  thoughts  in  general  which, 
in  obedience  to  your  commands,  I  have  reduced  to 
form  on  the  South  Sea  expedition.  I  here  offer 
to  your  Lordship  a  scheme  for  the  practice.  I  hope 
it  may  not  be  less  acceptable  to  you  for  that  it  has 
been  formerly  proposed,  since  I  can  assure  you  no 
eye  ever  saw  the  draft  except  his  late  Majesty  and 
the  Earl  of  Portland,  and  the  originals  were  always 
in  my  own  hand,  till  my  Lord  Nottingham's  fury 
forced  me  to  burn  them  with  other  papers  to  keep 
them  out  of  his  hands.  They  are  here  rough  and 
indigested,  but  if  you  approve  of  them  in  the  gross 
I  shall  single  it  out  to  put  in  a  dress  more  suitable 
for  your  service.  Meantime  I  shall  go  on  to  lay 
the  remaining  schemes  before  you."  ^ 

From  this  correspondence — bearing    in    mind, 
too,  the  reliance  which  Harley  placed  on  De  Foe's 
judgment  as  well  as  his  own  want  of  imagination 
*  Harley  Papers^  iii.  59. 


HARLEY   AND   BOLINGBROKE    151 

and  initiative — it  is  hardly  possible  to  overrate  the 
influence  of  De  Foe  upon  the  consolidation  of  the 
floating  debt  and  the  creation  of  the  South  Sea 
Company. 

The  head  of  the  Administration  by  which  the 
commercial  and  the  political  results  of  the  Treaty 
of  Utrecht  were  obtained,  should  have  been  in  con- 
quence  greatly  strengthened.  On  the  contrary,  the 
conclusion  of  peace  was  the  beginning  of  Harley  s 
fall.  The  cardinal  object  of  the  policy  which  served 
as  a  bond  between  the  Prime  Minister  and  Boling- 
broke  was  attained,  and  the  field  of  domestic  politics 
was  left  free  for  the  most  passionate  and  personal 
dissensions.  Harley  was  a  moderate  Whig  by  con- 
viction and  temperament,  Bolingbroke  was  a  Tory 
from  ambition  and  policy.  The  keynote  of  Harley's 
policy  w^as  management ;  of  Bolingbroke's,  mastery. 
The  one  was  over-cautious,  the  other  rash.  The 
one  sought  to  discover  the  drift  of  public  opinion 
and  to  trim  his  sails  according  to  it ;  the  other  acted 
on  his  individual  judgment,  which  was  that  of  an 
academic  thinker,  who  had  some  of  the  contempt 
of  the  fashionable  aristocrat  for  the  ideas  of  the 
general  public.  There  was  yet  another  reason  for 
their  political  divergence.  Harley,  though  one  of 
the  landed  gentry  and  intimately  acquainted  with 
their  views  and  wishes,  had  a  keener  appreciation 
than  Bolingbroke  of  the  power  of  the  towns,  and  of 
the  increasing  importance  of  the  commercial  class. 


152  ROBERT   HARLEY 

But  it  was  the  opinion  of  Bolingbroke — and  one 
which  says  little  for  his  sagacity — that  when  the 
war  was  ended  the  landed  interest  would  rise,  "  and 
the  monied  interest,  which  is  the  great  support  of 
Whiggism,  must  of  course  decline."^  A  statesman 
possessed  with  this  idea  would  naturally  unite 
himself  more  and  more  closely  with  what  he  con- 
ceived to  be  the  party  of  the  future.  But  such 
an  association  with  the  landed  interest  necessarily 
produced  an  active  alliance  with  all  the  extremer 
sections  of  the  Tory  party,  and  an  antagonism  to 
all  the  theories  by  which  Harley  s  political  career 
had  hitherto  been  guided.  Thus,  apart  from  their 
peculiar  personal  positions,  a  conflict  between  the 
two  men  was  now  inevitable.  Bolingbroke  too, 
unscrupulous,  abler,  and  more  determined  than 
Harley,  was  serving  under  him — it  was  impossible 
he  should  continue  a  subordinate.  Yet  Harley, 
though  not  a  man  consumed  by  ambition,  enjoyed 
political  business  ;  he  had  a  good  deal  of  stubborn 
pride,  and  no  man  will  willingly  and  quietly  sink 
into  the  second  place.  A  struggle  for  supremacy 
was  therefore  certain.  Harley  has  stated  that  the 
disagreement  between  himself  and  Bolingbroke 
commenced  in  February  171 1,  when  Bolingbroke 
began  to  form  a  separate  party ;  ^  but  up  to  this 

^  Bolingbroke^ s  Corresp.,  edited  by  Parke,  Ap.  29,  1712. 

2  "  The  Lord  Treasurer  Oxford's  Letter  to  the  Queen,  June  9, 
1 7 14,  covering  a  Brief  Account  of  Public  Affairs  since  August  8, 
1 7 10." — Pari.  Hist.y  vi.  ccvliii.  App.  No.  4. 


HENRY   ST.  JOHN,  VISCOUNT   BOLINGBROKE 

From  a  portrait  by  Hyacinth  Rigaitd  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery 


TREATY  OF  COMMERCE,   1713     153 

moment  he  had  no  active  personal  dislike  of 
Harley.  **  I  began,  indeed,  in  my  'heart,'"  he 
says,  speaking  of  the  events  of  171 2  many  years 
afterwards,  "to  renounce  the  friendship  which  till 
that  time  I  had  preserved  inviolable  for  Oxford." 
From  that  moment  he  conceived  for  him  a  contempt 
which  grew  to  the  bitterest  detestation. 

The  Treaty  of  Commerce  of  17 13  between 
Great  Britain  and  France  was  also  an  important 
cause  of  difference  between  the  two  statesmen. 
This  engagement  was  based  on  free  trade  prin- 
ciples. The  eighth  and  ninth  articles  of  the 
Treaty  provided  that  all  English  and  French 
goods  should  enjoy  the  same  commercial  privileges 
as  to  duties  and  customs  as  the  most  favoured 
nation ;  that  the  English  should  repeal  all  prohibi- 
tions of  French  goods  which  had  been  imposed 
since  1664;  and  that  no  French  goods  imported 
into  England  should  pay  higher  duties  than  similar 
goods  imported  from  any  other  European  country. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  French  were  to  repeal  all 
prohibitions  of  English  goods  since  1664. 

This  scheme  was  too  bold  and  far-seeing,  too 
much  in  advance  of  public  opinion,  to  have  been 
evolved  by  Harley.  Bolingbroke,  with  his  philo- 
sophic turn  of  mind,  his  large  views,  his  habitual 
contempt  for  public  opinion,  was  its  originator.  On 
1 8th  June,  however,  the  Bill  to  make  effective  the 
eighth  and  ninth  articles  of  the  Treaty  was  thrown 


154  ROBERT   HARLEY 

out  in  the  Commons  by  a  majority  of  nine  votes,^ 
several  of  the  Tories  who  had  previously  supported 
the  measure  now  opposing  it.  **  The  reason  of  the 
majority  was,"  wrote  Bolingbroke  to  Lord  Strafford, 
"that  there  had  been  during  two  or  three  days' 
uncertainty  an  opinion  spread  that  the  Lord 
Treasurer  gave  up  the  point."  It  is  more  probable 
that  Harley,  aware  of  the  public  and  commercial  dis- 
like of  the  Treaty,  was  secretly  assisting  its  enemies. 
At  that  very  time  he  was  in  close  communication 
with  Halifax,  the  founder  of  the  financial  system 
of  the  Revolution.  It  .would  be  in  accord  with 
Harley 's  financial  opinions  to  object  to  his  masterful 
colleague's  advanced  views,  and  he  would  not  be 
unlikely  to  thwart  them  by  underhand  means.* 

But  the  difference  between  the  aims  of  the 
Lord  Treasurer  and  of  the  Secretary  of  State  were 
so  fundamental  and  so  marked,  that  agreement  was 
impossible.     Harley  attempted  to  govern  by  the 

^  Pari.  Hist.^  vi.  1223. 

2  The  following  letter,  written  on  28th  May  by  Halifax  to  Harley, 
may  refer  to  this  subject,  since  the  first  debate  on  the  Bill  took  place 
on  14th  May.  On  the  other  hand,  the  letter  closely  follows  some 
which  refer  to  securing  the  Protestant  succession  :— 

"  I  should  be  wanting  to  the  confidence  and  favour  your  Lordship 
showed  me  in  your  last  letter,  if  I  did  not  acquaint  you  that  I  have 
so  far  discoursed  some  of  my  friends  as  to  be  able  to  assure  you  that 
your  Lordship  may  depend  upon  their  being  ready  to  concur  with 
your  Lordship,  if  you  think  it  fit  to  oppose  the  wild  proceeding  with 
which  we  are  threatened.  I  am  ready  to  attend  your  Lordship  at 
St.  James',  or  anywhere  else  you  shall  appoint,  if  you  really  think  I 
can  serve  you  and  desire  I  should."— //izr/^y  Papers^  iii.  292. 


HANOVERIAN   SUCCESSION       155 

most  elaborate  system  of  playing  one  party  against 
the  other,  while  nominally  the  chief  of  that  which 
was  in  power,  that  any  statesman  has  ever  ventured 
on.  It  involved  him  after  1713  in  nothing  less 
than  a  tissue  of  duplicity,  and  yet  the  foundation 
of  it  all  was  his  desire  to  act  on  principles  of 
moderation.  It  caused  him  even  to  be  impeached 
as  a  traitor,  while  at  the  same  time  it  did  not  gain 
the  confidence  of  those  whom  he  intended  to  cajole. 
Whigs  and  Hanoverians,  Tories  and  Jacobites 
alike  had  doubts  of  his  good  faith,  which  were 
magnified  because  the  whole  political  atmosphere 
was  thick  with  distrust.  Every  politician  was  in  a 
state  of  extraordinary  apprehension  and  uncertainty, 
and  every  word  which  was  spoken  was  listened  to 
with  suspicion,  if  not  with  disbelief.  Baron  Schutz, 
who  had  become  the  Hanoverian  Envoy  to  London 
in  April  17 13,  was  active,  meddlesome,  and  in- 
credulous, and  he  had  formed  the  opinion,  which 
coloured  his  correspondence,  that  Harley  was  not 
sincere  in  his  expressions  of  fidelity  to  the 
Hanoverian  succession.  ''  The  protestation  which 
the  Lord  Treasurer  himself  made  to  me,  that  he 
would  take  care  of  our  affairs  in  case  of  the  Queen's 
death,  have  little  weight  with  me."^  These  im- 
pressions, conveyed  to  the  advisers  of  the  Elector 
and  transmitted   to   him,   must  undoubtedly  have 

^  Macpherson  Papers^  ii.  554  (Schutz  toRobethon,  13th  February 
1714). 


156  ROBERT   HARLEY 

prejudiced  a  man  who  regarded   English  politics 

and  English  statesmen  as  a  foreigner.     Harley's 

friends    were     equally    ready    to     endeavour     to 

take    advantage    of    the    Elector's    ignorance   of 

England.     On  one  occasion,  Anthony  Murray  told 

Harley,  in  a  long  letter  from  Hanover,  how  he  had 

informed  the  Elector  in  the  course  of  conversation, 

that   in    17 lo    "the    Duke    of    Marlborough   was 

endeavouring  to  have  a  patent  to  be  generalissimo 

for  life,  my  Lord  Godolphin  to  be  Great  Treasurer 

for   life,   my   Lord    Wharton  to  be  Vice-King   of 

Ireland,  etc.     In  which  I  told  His  Highness,  if  they 

had  succeeded  Her  Majesty  was  not  only  no  more 

Queen,  but   they  would   have   sold   the   powerful 

crowns  and   dominions   of  Great    Britain."      The 

writer  then  adds  that  the  Elector  asked  if  **  it  was 

certain "   that    these    noblemen    "  endeavoured   to 

have  these  great  offices  for  life,"  and  he  repeats 

his  assertions.     By  way  of  enhancing  his  pretensions 

to  Harley's  favour,  Murray  concludes  by  the  remark 

that   a   person    not    a    relative,    but    '*a    faithful 

friend  and  servant  like  me,  will  also  be  minded  in 

telling   the   truth   in    your    favour,   as   not   being 

suspected  of  any  partiality."^ 

It  was  unfortunate  for  the  policy  which  Harley 
was  pursuing,  that  in  this  abnormal  political  situa- 
tion the  Electress  Sophia  and  her  son  should  have 
been  prevailed  on  to  allow  Baron  Schutz  to  demand 

*  Harley  Papers,  iii.  477-479  (2nd  June  1714)- 


ELECTORAL  PRINCE  157 

for  the  Electoral  Prince  a  writ  of  summons  to  the 
House  of  Lords  in  right  of  his  peerage  as  Duke  of 
Cambridge.  No  one  denied  that  he  was  entitled 
to  it,  but  the  demand  created  unbounded  excitement 
among  statesmen  both  at  Hanover  and  in  London. 
The  Elector  and  his  advisers,  as  well  as  the  Whig 
chiefs  in  England,  doubted  the  good  faith  of  the 
Queen,  and  were  apprehensive  that  the  Pretender 
would  be  invited  by  her  to  London.  They  knew 
that  she  had  some  affection  for  her  brother,  that 
she  must  be  influenced  by  the  letters  which  she 
received  from  him,  and  it  was  the  knowledge  of 
this  fact  which  excited  the  apprehension  of  the 
Whigs.  The  mission  (1714)  of  Thomas  Harley — 
the  cousin  of  the  Lord  Treasurer — to  Hanover  to 
express  the  goodwill  of  the  Queen  to  the  Elector 
only  increased  the  suspicions  of  the  Opposition. 
If  the  Electoral  Prince  came  to  London,  it  was 
thought  by  them  that  the  Hanoverian  succession 
would,  upon  the  death  of  the  Queen,  be  secured 
as  well  as  their  own  return  to  power.  But  the 
objections  of  the  Queen  to  this  demand  were 
strong  and  open.^  It  made  the  Queen,  said 
Harley,  more  angry  than  he  had  ever  seen  her, 
and  it  was  obvious  to  him  that  the  visit  would 
shatter  his  whole  present  policy,  parties  would  be 
sharply  divided,  and  to  become  on  friendly  terms 
with  the  Electoral  Prince  and  his  advisers  would 

^  Macpherson  Papers^  ii.  589. 


158  ROBERT   HARLEY 

cause  him  to  incur  the  displeasure  of  the  Queen, 
and  would  terminate  his  alliance  with  the  Tories. 
His  object  was  to  keep  affairs  in  their  present  state, 
to  continue  as  Prime  Minister  of  the  Queen  during 
the   short   period  of  life  which   might  remain   to 
her,  and  if  possible  to  obtain  a  renewal  of  power 
when  in  no  long  time  the  Elector  should  ascend 
the  throne.     The  accentuation  of  party  differences 
was   also  opposed  to  his  lifelong  political   views, 
and,  as  has  been  said,  the  visit  of  the   Electoral 
Prince  must,  he  thought,  have  this  result.     **The 
factions,"  he  wrote  to  Baron  Duyvenvoorde,  "are 
so  high,  it  will  be  very  unfortunate  for  so  great  a 
prince  to  be  only  prince  over  a   party  which  can 
never  last   long  in   England " ;  ^   and  to   Thomas 
Harley  he  said  that   this  visit  would   ''shift   the 
dispute.     It  will  be   no  more   between   a  Popish 
Pretender   and   the    Serene    House   of    Hanover, 
but    people   will    immediately   change    it    into   a 
contest   between   the   present    possessor  and   the 
future   successor."^       Though    it   was    clearly    to 
Harley  s   personal   advantage    that   affairs   should 
be  allowed  to   run  their  course,  yet   in   opposing 
the  visit  of  the   Electoral    Prince   he  was  acting 
also  in  the  best  interest  of  the  country ;  for  how- 
ever much  the  Queen  may  have  regretted  that  her 
brother  had  debarred  himself  from  mounting  the 

^  Macpherson  Papers^  ii.  593. 

2  Harley  Papers^  iii.  418  (13th  and  24th  April  17 14). 


POPULAR  AVERSION  TO  POPERY     159 

throne,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  she 
would  have  taken  the  violent  step  of  actively 
assisting  in  his  return,  or  that  such  a  policy  would 
have  received  the  support  of  more  than  the 
Jacobite  minority.  For  the  majority  of  the 
English  people — troubled  and  puzzled  though  they 
were  by  the  notorious  differences  between  the 
Ministers  of  the  Queen — expected  and  were  in 
favour  of  the  Hanoverian  succession.  "  Notwith- 
standing the  aspersions  that  have  been  thrown, 
there  is,"  wrote  Lord  Berkeley  to  the  Earl  of 
Strafford,  **such  an  aversion  to  Popery,  that  I 
believe  in  my  conscience  the  generality  thinks 
of  nothing  after  the  Queen  but  the  house  of 
Hanover."  ^  Harley  was  well  aware  of  this  deeply 
rooted  national  feeling,  which  rendered  measures 
to  safeguard  the  succession  to  the  throne  un- 
necessary, and  it  was  only  the  anomaly  of  his 
position  as  head  of  the  Tory  party  that  prevented 
him  from  showing  his  opinions  more  openly.  His 
antagonism,  however,  to  the  proposal  seemed  to  the 
Elector  and  his  advisers  inconsistent  with  his  pro- 
fessions of  friendship  for  the  house  of  Hanover. 

Bolingbroke,  on  the  other  hand,  boldly  and 
publicly  threw  himself  on  the  Tory  side.  "They 
are  like  hounds,  fond  of  the  man  who  shows  them 
game  and  by  whose  halloo  they  are  used  to  be 
encouraged."      Thus,  many   years    later,    he    de- 

^  Wentworth  Papers^  361  (i6th  March  1714)- 


160  ROBERT  HARLEY 

scribed  the  character  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  description  exactly  suits  the  disposition  of  the 
Tory  party  when  Bolingbroke  bid  for  the  leadership 
of  it.  His  policy  from  his  point  of  view  had  this 
great  merit,  it  must  inevitably  give  him  the  chief 
place  in  his  party,  and  eventually  also  must  cause 
the  downfall  of  Harley.  Bolingbroke's  plan  was 
quite  simple,  but  none  the  less  effective  for  its 
purpose.  In  May  17 14  his  friend  Sir  William 
Windham  moved  to  introduce  a  Schism  Bill,  to 
prevent  schoolmasters  from  carrying  on  their 
occupation  unless  they  had  taken  the  sacrament ; 
it  passed  through  the  House  of  Commons,^  and 
in  the  Lords  was  pressed  forward  by  Bolingbroke. 
This  was  a  blow  aimed  at  the  Dissenters,  a 
proceeding  gratifying  to  the  High  Churchmen  and 
extreme  Tories,  but  distinctly  harmful  to  the 
welfare  of  the  nation.  It  instantly  placed  Harley 
in  a  dilemma.  He  had  never  sympathised  with 
ecclesiastical  fanaticism,  and  he  was  sincerely 
anxious  to  promote  peace  and  goodwill  in  England. 
But,  chief  of  the  Tory  party,  how  could  he  oppose 
Windham's  and  Bolingbroke's  Bill  .'*  De  Foe,  on 
whose  opinions  Harley  relied  so  much,  was  of 
course  strongly  hostile  to  it.  On  21st  May  he 
wrote  a  weighty  letter  to  his  patron — 

*'  Last  night's  conversation  could  not  but  afford 

*  Pari.  Hist.y  vi.  349. 


THE   SCHISM   BILL  161 

many  useful  remarks  to  me,  and  I  thought  it  my 
duty  to  mention  to  your  Lordship  again  my  observa- 
tions on  that  part  which  relates  to  the  Dissenters. 

'*  First  the  Bill  depending  about  the  Dissenters' 
schools,  which  I  fear  will  pass,  it  is  true  the 
conduct  of  the  Dissenters  has  called  for  more  than 
this,  and  this  may  remind  them  of  a  hint  I  gave 
them  in  'The  Letter,' ^  whether  they  enjoyed  no 
favours  from  Her  Majesty's  bounty  which  they 
might  not  forfeit  by  their  present  behaviour.  I 
doubt  not,  but  their  pretended  friends,  the  Whigs, 
will  give  them  up  in  this,  as  they  did  in  the 
Occasional  Bill ;  ^  and  which  is  worse,  they  will 
give  themselves  up  too,  rather  than  not  carry  on 
their  party  mischief;  I  pity  them,  but  I  cannot 
but  recommend  the  interest  of  posterity  to  your 
compassion.  As  to  their  academies,  if  there  had 
never  been  any,  I  know  not  but  their  interest  had 
been  as  good,  and  fewer  beggars  and  drones  had 
bred  up  for  ministers  among  them.  But  for  the 
schools  for  common  introduction  (?)  of  children,  I 
think  their  loss  will  be  irreparable.  It  is  true  that 
they  will  have  schools  still,  they  will  be  no  more 
illegal  than  before,  but  it  seems  hard  upon  the 
nation  in  general  to  make  laws  which  it  will  be 
necessary  to  break,  like  that  of  the  late  Abjuration 
Act  in  Scotland."  ^ 

^  Letter  to  the  Dissenters,  (Dec.  1713)  urging  them  to  moderation. 
2  See  p.  128.  ^  Hurley  Papers^  iii.  444. 

II 


162  ROBERT   HARLEY 

Halifax,  with  whom — though  one  of  the  Junto 
— Harley  was  constantly  taking  counsel,  evidently 
considered  that  the  Bill  gave  the  Lord  Treasurer 
an  opportunity  of  placing  his  country  before  party. 

"  The  Land  Tax,"  he  writes  on  May  29th,  "  and 
the  Malt  (Tax)  are  passed,  and  the  Bill  of  Schism 
is  at  the  door  ;  if  I  am  any  judge  of  opportunities, 
your  enemies  have  thrown  such  a  game  into  your 
hands  as  never  happened  to  any  man  before,  and 
is  the  peculiar  happiness  of  my  Lord  Oxford.  I 
beg  you  to  make  use  of  this  conjuncture,  which 
is  most  favourable,  too,  in  other  respects,  to  save 
your  country.  Allow  me  to  wait  upon  you  and 
explain  my  thoughts  to  you  upon  this  occasion. 
If  you  will  name  the  time  when  you  will  be  at 
St.  James',  I  will  attend  you,  and  come  disposed 
to  join  in  any  measures  you  shall  direct,  or  pre- 
pared to  offer  such  a  scheme  as  may  save  this 
kingdom  from  distraction  and  ruin."  ^ 

But  though  Harley's  principles  prevented  him 
from  actively  consenting  to  this  unjust  measure,  his 
desire  of  retaining  office,  his  wish  not  yet  to  break 
away  from  the  party  of  which  he  was  still  nominally 
the  leader,  and  his  naturally  non-combative  and 
uncommanding  spirit,  would  not  permit  him  to 
oppose  it,  as  a  bolder  statesman,  as  great  men 
like  Chatham  or  Fox,  would  have  done,  or  as,  a 
few  years  later,  Walpole  opposed  the  Peerage  Bill. 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  451. 


vacillatio:n  of  harley    igs 

His  feeble  and  vacillating  action  showed  that  he 
could  not  cope  with  the  difficulties  which  con- 
fronted him.  He  suggested  that  the  Bill  was  of 
some  value,  and  that  the  hardships  pointed  out 
by  the  Whigs  might  be  eliminated  in  committee. 
When  a  motion  was  made  that  the  Nonconformists 
should  be  heard  by  counsel,  he  refused  to  commit 
himself  and  would  not  vote,  yet  at  other  stages 
he  was  found  voting  with  its  supporters  ;  ^  and  so 
he  pleased  neither  his  opponents  nor  his  own 
party.  Neither  Nonconformists  nor  Tories  could 
— it  was  clear — rely  on  him  ;  but  while  of  the 
former  he  desired  to  be  the  good  friend,  of  the 
latter  he  was  the  nominal  leader.  Such  action, 
therefore,  could  have  but  one  result :  the  loss  of 
all  authority  as  chief  of  the  Tory  party,  and,  it 
must  be  frankly  added,  on  this  occasion,  of  credit 
either  as  a  statesman,  or  as  an  honest  and  straight- 
forward politician.  Comparisons  between  states- 
men of  different  epochs  are  often  misleading,  but 
it  is  impossible  not  to  contrast  Harley  and  Peel. 
Each  had  some  remarkable  points  in  common : 
a  love  of  moderation  and  of  national  economy, 
each  was  free  from  religious  animosity,  each  was 
head  of  the  Tory  party,  and  each  in  principle  was 
in  sympathy  with  his  opponents.  But  whereas 
Peel  was  true  to  his  convictions,  Harley  never 
had  the  courage  to  sacrifice  his  party  to  principle, 

1  Pari  HisL,  vi.  1354.      Wentworth  Papers^  386,  388. 


164  ROBERT   HARLEY 

though  he  was  not  hypocrite  enough  to  be  able 
to  hide  his  real  opinions.  Each  statesman  was 
in  the  result  disowned  by  his  party,  but  the  one 
gained  the  appreciation  of  posterity,  the  other  its 
condemnation. 

The  game  was  now  in  Bolingbroke's  hands. 
The  political  conflict  became  a  personal  strife 
around  the  sick  and  lonely  Queen.  Hers  must 
be  the  last  word  ;  and  so  in  her  Cabinet  Harley 
had  to  make  his  last  stand,  Bolingbroke  and  his 
faction  striving  meanwhile  to  gain  her  consent 
to  the  dismissal  of  the  Lord  Treasurer.  Anne  s 
ecclesiastical  prejudices,  and  her  jealousy  of  her 
successor,  were  played  on  by  the  enemies  of  the 
Lord  Treasurer ;  while  on  his  side  he  had  to 
justify  his  policy,  sometimes  sharply,  to  depreciate 
his  antagonists,  to  suggest  that  they  were  plotting 
for  the  Pretender.  It  was  a  discreditable  and 
undignified  conflict,  in  which  it  is  difficult  to  follow 
Harley's  actual  course.  A  pitiful  and  unmanly 
conduct  has  been  attributed  to  him  by  some,  a 
vigilant  and  composed  attitude  has  been  the  de- 
scription of  others.  There  is  probably  truth  in  each 
statement.  That  he  would  play  on  the  Queen's 
feelings  now  in  one  way  and  now  in  another,  was 
certain  ;  he  would  now  appeal  to  her  heart  and  now 
to  her  head,  now  talk  to  her  as  a  friend  and  now 
address  her  as  a  Minister.  And  throughout,  his 
expressions,  after  the  manner  of  the  age,  would  be 


HARLEY  AND  BOLINGBROKE     165 

exaggerated  ;  and  so  an  appeal  to  the  Queen's  good 
feelings,  somewhat  pitifully  framed,  should  not  be 
taken  too  literally.  Hitherto,  neither  political  suc- 
cess nor  political  disaster  had  ever  disturbed 
Harley's  unvarying  serenity,  and  there  is  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  he  lost  his  habitual  self-control 
during  the  conflicts  which  preceded  his  ultimate 
fall.  But  such  a  struggle  as  this  was  fitly  ended 
by  a  woman's  influence.  Lady  Masham  was  ever 
by  the  side  of  the  Queen,  and  her  influence,  veiled 
under  the  attractive  guise  of  friendship,  was  the 
final  factor  in  Harley's  fall  as  it  was  in  his  rise  to 
supreme  power.^  It  was  a  strange  political  scene, 
one   which   has   never   been    and    can    never   be 

^  Dr.  Arbuthnot,  who  as  physician  to  the  Queen  had  unique  oppor- 
tunities of  knowing  the  course  of  events  at  Court,  wrote  to  Swift  on 
26th  June  :  "  I  will  plague  you  a  little  by  telling  you  the  Dragon  dies 
hard.     He  is  now  kicking  and  cuffing  about  here  like  the  devil." 
On  loth  July  :  "  The  Dragon  holds  fast  with  a  dead  grip  the  little 
machine"  ("the  treasurer's  staff").     On  the  17th  :  "Our  situation  at 
present  is  in  short  thus  :    they  have  ro7nper  e7i  visilre  with  the 
Dragon,  and  yet  don't  know  how  to  do  without  him.     My  Lady 
Masham  has  in  a  manner  bid  him  defiance,  without  any  scheme  or 
likeness  of  it  in  any  form  or  shape,  as  far  as  I  can  see.     Notwith- 
standing, he  visits,  cringes,  flatters,  etc.,  which  is  beyond  my  com- 
prehension."   On  24th  July :  "  I  was  told  .  .  .  that  I  did  not  know 
the  half  of  his  (Harley's)  proceedings.     Particularly,  it  was  said, 
though  I  am  confident  it  is  a  mistake,  that  he  had  attempted  the 
removing  her  (Lady  Masham)  from  the  favour  of  a  great  person. 
In  short,  the  fall  of  the  Dragon  does  not  proceed  altogether  from  his 
old  friend  (Lady  Masham),  but  from  the  great  person  (the  Queen), 
whom  I  perceive  to  be  highly  offended  by  little  hints  that  I  have 
received.     In  short,  the  Dragon  has  been  so  ill-used,  and  must  serve 
upon  such  terms  for  the  future,  if  he  should  that  I  swear,  I  would 
not  advise  Turk,  Jew,  nor  Infidel  to  be  in  that  state." — Correspond- 
ence printed  in  Aitken's  Life  of  Arbuthnot^  pp.  63,  67,  70,  74. 


166  ROBERT   HARLEY 

repeated,  illustrative  only  too  vividly  of  the  un- 
exampled state  of  English  politics  when  Harley 
ceased  to  be  Prime  Minister. 

The  struggle  ended  on  July  27th  ;  on  that  day 
Harley  was  dismissed  from  the  Queen's  service. 

*'My  good  friend,"  wrote  Lady  Masham  to 
Swift  on  29th  July,  ''  I  own  it  looks  unkind  in 
me  not  to  thank  you  all  this  time  for  your  sincere 
kind  letter ;  but  I  was  resolved  to  stay  till  I  could 
tell  you  the  Queen  had  got  so  far  the  better  of 
the  dragon  as  to  take  her  power  out  of  his  hands. 
He  has  been  the  most  ungrateful  man  to  her,  and 
all  his  best  friends,  that  ever  was  born. 

**  I  cannot  have  so  much  time  now  to  write 
all  my  mind,  because  my  dear  mistress  is  not 
well,  and  I  think  I  may  lay  her  illness  to  the 
charge  of  the  Treasurer,  who  for  three  weeks 
together  was  teasing  and  vexing  her  without  in- 
termission!  And  she  could  not  get  rid  of  him 
till  Tuesday  last. 


"  1 


Anne's  ostensible  reasons  for  the  dismissal  of 
Harley  were  as  personal  as  those  which  served  for 
that  of  Godolphin,  and  were  childishly  inaccurate — 

**  He  neglected  all  business;  he  was  seldom 
to  be  understood  ;  when  he  did  explain  himself 
she  could  not  depend  upon  the  truth  of  what  he 

^  Swift's  Works y  xvi.  164. 


FALL   OF   HARLEY  167 

said ;  he  never  came  to  her  at  the  time  she 
appointed ;  he  often  came  drunk ;  lastly,  to  crown 
all,  he  behaved  himself  toward  her  with  bad 
manners,  indecency,  and  disrespect." 

The  blow  having  been  struck,  Harley  suffered 
it   with   an   outward    calm,    characteristic    of    his 
public  demeanour  throughout  his  life.     This  com- 
posure came  partly  from  temperament,  partly  from 
a  long  course  of  self-restraint,  by  no  means  common 
among  his  contemporaries.     He  announced  his  fall 
to   his  sister  with  the  same  remarkable  absence 
of  vexation   as   he   did    to  Swift.     This  may  by 
some  be  regarded  as  affectation ;  it  was  real,  and 
never  throughout  his  most  intimate  correspondence 
did  he  allude,  except  with  calmness,  to  his  loss  of 
power,  or  show  either  resentment  or  even  annoy- 
ance at  the  action  of  Anne,    **  the  dear  Queen," 
as  he  writes  of  her  on  the  eve  of  her  funeral,^  and 
once  overthrown,  he  made  no  sustained  attempt,  as 
a  more  ambitious  man  would  have  done,  to  rise. 
Equally  genuine  was  his  idea  of  duty ;  for  in  the 
strange  and  difficult  political  circumstances  of  the 
age  he  followed  a  consistent,  if  a  somewhat  question- 
able, standard  of  political  conduct. 

**  I  hope,"  he  writes  on  July  29th,  "my  dearest 
sister  was  sufficiently  prepared  for  what  happened 

^  Lord  Oxford  to  Edward  Harley,  igtli  August  17 14.     Brampton 
MSS.,  No.  117. 


168  ROBERT   HARLEY 

on  Tuesday  night,  that  there  was  no  need  of  my 
writing  by  that  post,  if  it  had  been  possible. 

*'  I  came  in  with  the  expectation  of  the  treat- 
ment I  meet  with.  I  thought  it  as  much  my  duty 
then  to  come  in  as  now  to  be  out,  and  it  is  my 
comfort  I  do  go  out  with  as  much  honour  and 
innocency  as  I  came  in.  Let  me  send  you  the 
following  imitation  : — 

" '  To  serve  with  love, 

And  shed  your  blood, 
Approved  is  above ; 
But  here  below, 
Th'  examples  show. 
It  is  fatal  to  be  good.' 

**  God  preserve  my  dearest  sister.  Affectionate 
service  to  Sister  Harley.  I  pray  God  bless  all  the 
little  ones."  ^ 

When  most  men  would  have  been  unable  to 
conceal  their  thoughts  on  the  importance  of  the 
event  which  had  just  occurred,  Harley  was  osten- 
tatiously interested  in  a  childish  rhyme.  For  he 
says  at  the  conclusion  of  a  letter  at  the  same  time 
to  Swift,  "  I  send  you  an  imitation  of  Dryden 
(composed)  as  I  went  to  Kensington."  They  are 
the  same  jingling  lines  which  he  despatched  to  his 
sister. 

Harley 's  fall  was  the  necessary  result  of  his 
desire  to  stand  well  with  two  deeply  antagonistic 

*  Harley  Papers^  iii.  477. 


HARLEY'S   SCHEME   IN   1713       169 

parties,  of  an  incapacity  boldly  to  sever  himself 
after  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  from  the  Tories  ;  he  lost 
their  confidence  without  gaining  the  support  of  their 
opponents.  That  throughout  the  last  two  years  of 
his  official  life  Harley  was  not  only  on  the  closest 
terms  of  political  intimacy  with  Halifax,  but  was 
planning  with  him  some  kind  of  political  combina- 
tion, is  now  abundantly  clear.  "  I  shall  wait  upon 
you  to-morrow  at  St.  James',"  wrote  Halifax  on 
the  27th  of  May  1713,  **  with  an  earnest  desire  on 
my  part,  and  sufficient  authority  from  others,  to 
make  a  perfect  union  with  your  Lordship  to  sup- 
port the  true  interest  of  our  country  under  your 
directions."  ^  The  existence  of  some  scheme  for 
such  a  union  as  that  which  Halifax  indicates,  a 
union  probably  of  the  less  virulent  Whigs,  led  by 
Halifax  and  Somers,  with  a  small  number  of 
Tories  who  Harley  hoped  would  act  with  him,  is 
the  most  probable  explanation  of  his  conduct. 
Had  the  Queen  lived,  a  coalition  might  perhaps 
have  resulted ;  but  It  was  frustrated  by  the  death 
of  Anne  before  it  was  ripe,  and  the  political 
edifices  of  Harley  and  of  Bolingbroke  were  thus 
alike  laid  low.  By  the  extreme  members  of  the 
Tory  party  the  professions  of  sympathy  with  the 
Jacobite  cause  which  Harley  may  have  thrown  out 
in  hints  were  fast  becoming  regarded  as  unreal ;  by 
a  still  larger  number  he  was  thought  to  be  luke- 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  292.     See  also  pp.  270,  271. 


170  ROBERT   HARLEY 

warm  in  his  attachment  to  the  Church  of  England, 
and  to  be  a  Dissenter  in  disguise.  Men  said  too — 
and  this  was  not  altogether  untrue — that,  having 
secured  for  himself  a  high  place  in  the  peerage, 
his  ambition  was  satisfied.  Thus  at  the  end  of  his 
administration  he  inspired  no  confidence  as  a  party 
leader ;  losing  the  trust  of  the  Tories,  he  lost  also 
that  of  the  Queen,  and,  like  Godolphin,  he  was 
obliged  to  resort  to  the  same  system  of  expostula- 
tion and  of  entreaty.  Like  Godolphin,  his  political 
life  was  finally  destroyed  by  Lady  Masham.  Why 
she  had  ceased  to  be  Harley's  friend  and  ally,  and 
had  become  his  enemy,  is  not  quite  clear.  Every 
one  about  the  Court  had  a  different  reason  to 
give.  Probably  a  conjunction  of  comparatively 
unimportant  causes  —  personal  estrangement,  dis- 
satisfaction with  what  she  regarded  as  persecution 
of  the  Queen,  the  influence  of  Bolingbroke, 
perhaps  the  fact  that  she  had  not  received  shares 
in  the  South  Sea  Company,  combined  to  produce 
this  change.  It  was  sufficient,  however,  to  become 
the  final  cause  of  Harley's  fall.  As  with  Godol- 
phin, so  it  was  with  Harley — one  was  watching  to 
succeed  him.  All  things  therefore  tended  towards 
one  result,  and  it  was  scarcely  possible  for  Harley 
to  have  escaped  from  this  political  catastrophe.^ 

^  The  narrative  of  Harley's  administration  ought  not  to  be  left 
without  referring  to  the  careful  work  of  Dr.  Felix  Salamon,  GcschichU 
des  letzten  Ministeriums  Konigin  AnnaSy  Gotha,  1894. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

IMPEACHMENT— IMPRISONMENT— RETIREMENT 

1714-1724 

Harley's  Position  on  Death  of  Queen  Anne— His  Hopes 
ON  Accession  of  George  i. — Proceedings  against  the  Tory 
Leaders— Impeachment  of  Harley— Imprisonment  in  the 
Tower— Difference  between  the  Two  Houses— Acquittal 
— Harley  and  the  Jacobites— Opposition  to  the  Peerage 
Bill — Indifference  to  Financial  Distress  resulting  from 
South  Sea  Scheme— Harley  and  his  Friends— Prior  and 
Swift— Death— Summary  of  his  Character  and  Life. 

NO  political  victory  was  ever  more  momentary 
than  that  of  Bolingbroke,  for  or.  the  ist  of 
August  1 7 14  the  Queen  died,  and  the  power  which 
he  had  hardly  grasped  fell  from  his  hands.  With  the 
accession  of  the  Elector  of  Hanover  to  the  English 
throne,  the  Whigs  returned  to  power  for  a  genera- 
tion, and  Harley's  political  career — whilst  he  was 
still  in  the  prime  of  life — was  permanently  con- 
cluded. From  boyhood  somewhat  delicate,  his 
health  and  vigour  had  been  exhausted  by  the 
critical  and  trying  years — few  though  they  were — 
which  had  elapsed  since  he  became  Prime  Minister 
in  1 7 10.  Many  statesmen  have  remained  in 
supreme  power  for  a  longer  period,  but  none  for 

171 


172  ROBERT   HARLEY 

one  which  was  more  momentous'  and  memorable, 
than  the  last  four  years  of  the  reign  of  Anne. 

Immediately  after  the  Queen's  death  the  fallen 
Minister  retired,  first  to  Wimpole  in  Cambridge- 
shire, the  home  by  marriage  of  his  eldest  son,  and 
then  to  Brampton.  There  he  interested  himself 
in  the  local  elections  for  the  new  Parliament  which 
met  in  March  17 15,  and  which,  unlike  that  just 
dissolved,  was  entirely  Whig  in  sentiment.  For 
a  moment  some  hope  seems  to  have  arisen  in  his 
mind  that  his  experience  and  his  moderation  of 
opinion,  and  the  desire  which,  in  his  correspondence 
with  the  Elector,  he  had  always  shown  to  stand 
well  with  the  new  sovereign,  might  cause  him  to 
be  recalled  to  office.  The  King's  **  unacquainted- 
ness  and  partial  information  "  would,  he  thought, 
prevent  him  from  forming  a  stable  administration. 
**  Neither  party  of  the  two  denominations  separ- 
ately," he  wrote  to  his  late  colleague.  Lord  Dart- 
mouth, "can  form  any  such  as  is  practicable,  they 
have  not  credit  enough,"^  so  "an  understanding 
must  be  found  among  those  who  wish  a  settlement 
in  England."  The  same  dominating  idea  which 
had  possessed  Harley  through  his  whole  career 
still  governed  him,  but  in  the  belief  which  he  thus 
expressed  to  Dartmouth  he  showed  a  lack  of 
appreciation  of  the  political  situation  and  of  the 

1  Dartmouth  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.,  nth  Rept.  App.  part  v.  p.  321 
(end  of  August  17 14). 


ACCESSION  OF  GEORGE   I.       173 

strength  of  party  bitterness.  True,  it  was  not  he 
who  now  was  to  be  the  moderator,  it  was  Dart- 
mouth's "healing  hand"  which  was  to  apply  the 
remedy ;  for  which  he  thought  there  was  a  great 
preparation  and  disposition  everywhere.  But  this 
hope  did  not  last  long,  and  before  the  Elector 
arrived  in  England  Harley  perceived  that  there 
was  no  possibility  of  his  return  to  power.^ 

A  fate  very  different  from  the  formation  of 
Cabinets  was  to  be  his  during  the  ensuing  years, 
for  in  the  spring  of  17 15  there  began  the  famous 
proceedings  against  the  leaders  of  the  late  Tory 
Ministry.  Threats  against  them  occupied  a 
prominent  place  in  the  Address  in  answer  to  the 
Speech  from  the  Throne.  *'  It  appears,"  ran  that 
which  was  moved  by  Walpole  in  the  Commons 
referring  to  the  action  of  the  Pretender,  *^  that  his 
hopes  were  built  upon  the  measures  that  had  been 
taken  for  some  time  past  in  Great  Britain.  It 
shall  be  our  business  to  trace  out  those  measures 
whereon  he  placed  his  hopes,  and  to  bring  the 
authors  of  them  to  condign  punishment."  ^  Boling- 
broke,  to  escape  from  the  impeachment  which  was 

^  In  a  letter  to  his  brother,  Auditor  Harley,  from  the  Tower,  of 
13th  February  1717  (Brampton  MSS.),  Harley  says  that  on  the 
Queen's  death  he  gave  assurances  to  the  King  and  his  Ministers  of 
"  my  fixed  resolution  to  retire,  and  I  did  put  the  same  in  practice 
until  my  accusation  called  me  out  of  the  country."  The  letter  to 
Dartmouth  was  written  at  the  end  of  August,  and  the  King  arrived  on 
1 8th  September. 

2  Pari  Hist,  vii.  4. 


174  ROBERT   HARLEY 

impending,  fled  on  the  26th  of  March  to  France, 
and  in  July  became  Secretary  of  State  to  the 
Pretender.  It  appeared  to  be  a  public  avowal 
of  his  intrigues  with  the  Jacobites.  Of  this,  at 
any  rate,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  it  showed  in 
Bolingbroke  extraordinary  want  of  sagacity,  it 
suggested  a  close  negotiation  with  the  Pretender 
before  the  death  of  the  Queen,  and  it  is  the  clearest 
evidence  of  unpatriotism,  because  he  could  not 
have  intended  to  remain  as  Secretary  of  State 
to  a  king  without  a  kingdom,  and  that  kingdom 
could  only  be  obtained  at  the  cost  of  a  civil  war. 
Bolingbroke's  action  therefore  unquestionably  tends 
to  justify  Harley's  opposition  to  him  in  the  Cabinet, 
because  it  is  some  proof,  if  not  of  actual  Jacobite 
intrigues,  at  any  rate  of  unsound  political  judgment. 
Harley,  answering  an  urgent  appeal  from  his  brother 
Edward — Auditor  Harley — to  hasten  to  London, 
replied  curtly,  "The  going  away  of  Lord  Boling- 
broke is  like  his  other  practices.  I  thank  God  I  was 
never  in  his  secret,  and  for  late  years  out  of  his 
way  of  converse,  but  only  what  was  necessary."  ^ 

By  some  it  was  thought  that  Bolingbroke's 
flight  would  sufficiently  satisfy  the  enemies  of  the 
late  Government,  and  that  Harley  would  not  be 
molested ;  but  they  were  mistaken.  On  the  9th 
of  April  a  secret  Committee,  of  which  Walpole 
was  elected    Chairman,  was   appointed  to  inquire 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  510 


IMPEACHMENT   OF   HARLEY     175 

into  the  late  peace  and  other  matters.  On  the 
loth  of  June — the  Committee  having  reported — 
Walpole  moved  the  impeachment  of  Bolingbroke, 
which  was  carried  without  a  division.  Presently 
Lord  Coningsby  ^ — a  violent  and  unswerving  Whig, 
and  a  bitter  local  opponent  of  Harley  —  rose. 
*'  The  worthy  Chairman  of  the  Committee,"  he 
said,  **has  impeached  the  hand,  but  I  do  impeach 
the  head ;  he  has  impeached  the  Clerk,  and  I  the 
Justice ;  he  has  impeached  the  scholar,  and  I 
the  master :  I  impeach  Robert  Earl  of  Oxford 
and  Earl  Mortimer  of  high  treason  and  other 
crimes  and  misdemeanours."^  It  is  doubtful 
whether  the  Government  intended  to  impeach 
the  late  Lord  Treasurer.  If  such  had  been  their 
policy,  it  was  he  who  from  his  rank  should  have 
been  first  proceeded  against,  and  the  motion 
should  have  been  made  not  by  a  private  member, 
but,  as  in  the  case  of  Bolingbroke  and  Ormond,  by 
the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  or  by  one  of  the 
Administration.  After  speeches  from  Harley's 
relative,  the  Auditor,  and  Mr.  Foley,  Sir  Joseph 
Jekyll,  Chief  Justice  of  Chester  and  a  staunch 
Whig  and  one  of  the  Committee,  spoke,  declaring 

^Thomas  Earl  Coningsby  (i656(?)-i729),  M.P.  for  Leominster 
1 679-1 710  and  171 5- 171 9,  when  he  was  raised  to  the  English  peerage 
as  Earl  Coningsby,  having  been  created  an  Irish  peer  in  1692.  An 
ardent  supporter  of  William  ill.,  he  was  by  his  side  at  the  battle  of 
the  Boyne,  and  held  various  official  positions  and  also  local  dignities 
in  Herefordshire  and  Radnorshire. 

2  Pari  Hist.^  vii.  67. 


176  ROBERT   HARLEY 

that  there  were  no  grounds  for  an  impeachment. 
Then  the  Whigs  perceiving  the  weakness  of 
their  case,  *'a  member  of  the  Committee"  rose 
and  declared  that  besides  what  had  appeared  in 
their  report,  "they  had  other  evidence  viva  voce" 
In  other  words,  the  House  was  asked  to  pass  the 
motion  not  on  the  facts  before  it,  but  on  something 
undisclosed  and  unknown.  Party  spirit  ran  too 
high  for  the  majority  to  be  judicial,  and  Harley's 
friends  doubtless  thought  that  resistance  at  the 
moment  was  inopportune ;  so  this  theatrically 
worded  resolution  was  carried  without  a  division, 
and  Harley  on  the  9th  of  July  was  committed  to 
the  Tower. 

The  first  articles  of  impeachment^  contained 
charges  which  were  no  more  than  criticisms  of 
policy,  and  were  wholly  without  weight  as  a 
criminal  indictment.  In  August,  however,  six 
further  articles  were  added,  one  of  which  was  an 
accusation  of  high  treason,  for  it  charged  Harley, 
vaguely  enough,  with  aiding  the  Pretender.  His 
answers  to  the  accusations  against  him  took  the 
form  of  a  general  defence  of  his  political  actions, 
and  of  his  policy  during  the  last  four  years  of  the 
reign  of  Queen  Anne.  Throughout  this  defence 
the  modern  idea  of  ministerial  responsibility  is 
conspicuously  absent.  Every  act  of  Harley  was 
done  with  the  knowledge  and  the  approbation — he 

^  ParL  Hist.y  vii.  67,  74. 


HARLEY   IN   THE   TOWER        177 

asserts — of  his  sovereign,  and  he  shields  himself 
— if  fault  he  has  committed — behind  the  authority 
of  his  mistress.  So  that  in  reading  Harley's 
elaborate  apologia  of  his  policy  and  conduct,  we 
are  constantly  reminded  of  the  still  embryonic 
state  of  theories  of  political  conduct  which  are 
now  accepted  as  axiomatic,  and  of  the  still  un- 
doubted influence  of  the  Crown. 

But  the  Ministers  of  the  new  sovereign  had 
more  pressing  business  on  hand  than  that  of 
carrying  on  a  State  trial,  and  from  a  party  point 
of  view  it  was  sufficient  that  the  late  Lord 
Treasurer  lay  imprisoned  under  a  charge  of  high 
treason.  Delay  after  delay  ensued,  and  for  two 
years  Harley  remained  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower. 
When  at  last,  on  the  24th  of  June  17 17,  he  was 
brought  to  the  Bar  within  the  historic  walls 
of  Westminster  Hall,  his  trial  was  dramatically 
interrupted  by  his  old  colleague.  Lord  Harcourt, 
who  moved  that  the  Peers  do  adjourn  to  their 
own  House.  There  Harcourt  at  once  moved  and 
carried  a  resolution  that  the  Commons  be  not 
admitted  to  proceed  with  Harley 's  trial  for  high 
crimes  and  misdemeanours,  **till  judgment  be  first 
given  upon  the  articles  for  high  treason."  The 
object  of  this  step  was  obvious.  It  was  impossible, 
as  had  been  evident  from  the  beginning  of  the  im- 
peachment, that  Harley  could  be  convicted  of  high 

treason  ;  and  acquitted  upon  this  charge,  the  whole 
12 


178  ROBERT   HARLEY 

sting  of  the  prosecution  would  be  gone.  Moreover, 
as  the  House  of  Commons  were  the  accusers  and 
the  House  of  Lords  the  judges,  the  Peers  by  this 
motion  were  infringing  the  privileges  of  the  Lower 
House,  and  were  thus  creating  a  technical  difficulty, 
which  could  only  be  overcome  by  the  withdrawal 
of  the  motion  or  by  the  waiving  of  the  Commons' 
rights.  As  neither  side  would  give  way,  the  con- 
ferences between  the  two  Houses  produced  no 
result,  and  a  motion  in  the  Commons  on  the  ist 
of  July  that  the  trial  should  proceed  in  the  manner 
indicated  by  Harcourt  was  negatived.  This  was 
the  virtual  end  of  Harley's  long-impending  trial, 
and  on  the  3rd  of  July,  the  Commons  not  appear- 
ing, he  was  acquitted  by  the  House  of  Lords, ^  the 

1  The  following  are  the  steps  in  the  impeachment  of  Harley  : — 

1715. 
loth  June.  Resolution  passed  in   House  of  Commons  for  impeach- 
ment of  the  Earl  of  Oxford. — Pari.  Hist.,  vii.  67. 
7th  July.  Articles  of  impeachment  agreed  to  by  House  of  Commons 

and  sent  to  House  of  Lords. — Pari.  Hist.,  vii.  74. 
7th  July.  Order  by  House  of  Lords  for  committal  of  Earl  of  Oxford 

to  custody. — Pari.  Hist.,  vii.  106. 
1 2th  July.  Order  for  committal   to    the  Tower. — Pari.  Hist.,  vii. 

107. 
2nd  Aug.  Six  further  articles  of  impeachment  read  and  carried  to 

House  of  Lords. — Pari.  Hist.,  vii.  114. 
3rd  Sept.  Answer  of  Earl  of  Oxford  delivered  to  House  of  Lords. 

—Pari.  Hist.,  vii.  158. 
7th  Sept.  Answer  sent  to  House  of  Commons  and  debate  thereon. 

— Pari.  Hist.,  vii.  211. 
nth  Sept.  Replication  of  House  of  Commons  to  the  answer  carried 
to  the  House  of  Lords. — Pari.  Hist.,  vii.  212,  213. 
1717. 
22nd  May.  Petition  of  Earl  of  Oxford  that  his  case  be  taken  into 


END   OF  THE   IMPEACHMENT     179 

very  body  which  during  his  Ministry  had  been  his 
most  troublesome  and  determined  enemy.  The 
time  had  in  truth  gone  by  when  purely  political 
action  on  the  part  of  a  statesman,  however  odious 
to  his  opponents,  could  bring  him  to  the  block. 
Half  a  century  later,  Harley  would  never  have 
been  impeached — a  vote  of  censure  would  have 
been  his  severest  punishment ;  a  little  more  than 
fifty  years  earlier  he  might  have  lost  his  head  on 
Tower  Hill.  Time,  too,  softens  even  the  rancour 
of  party,  and  nearly  two  years  of  office  had  lessened 

consideration  and  debate  thereon  in   the  House  of 

Lords. — Pari.  Hist.^  vii.  462. 
27th  May.  After  debate,  13th  of  June  appointed  for  trial. — Pari. 

Hist.^  vii.  465. 
1 2th  June.  Motion  in  House  of  Commons  for  postponement  of  trial. 

— Pari.  Hist.^  vii.  475. 
24th  June.  Trial  of  Earl  of  Oxford  opened  in  Westminster  Hall,  and 

adjournment. — Pari.  Hist.,  vii.  481. 
24th  June.  Motion  carried  in  House  of  Lords  that  the  Commons  be  not 

admitted  to  proceed  till  judgment  be  first  given  upon 

the  articles  for  high  treason. — Pari.  Hist.^  vii.  486. 
27th  June.  Conference    between    the    two    Houses,   and    messages 

between  the  two  Houses. — Pari.  Hist.^  vii.  487. 
1st  July.  Motion  in  House  of  Commons  that  Harley's  trial  do  proceed 

as  indicated  by  the  House  of  Lords,  lost  on  a  division. 
3rd  July.  Trial  renewed  (7   p.m.),  and   on  the  nonappearance   of 

Commons  the  Earl  of  Oxford  was  acquitted. — Pari. 

Hist.,  vii.  494. 
3rd  July.  Address  to  King  carried  in  House  of  Commons  to  except 

the  Earl  of  Oxford  from  Act  of  Grace. — Pari.  Hist., 

vii.  496. 
See  also  Howell's  State  Trials,  xv.  1046,  and  The  Whole  Pro- 
ceedings against  Robert  Earl  of  Oxford  and  Earl  Mortifuer, 
London,  171 5,  which  contains  the  first  portion  only  of  the  proceed- 
ings, the  writer  amiably  expressing  his  hope  that  in  a  future  publica- 
tion he  may  describe  Harley's  condemnation  and  punishment. 


180  ROBERT    HARLEY 

the  resentment  of  many  of  the  Whigs  to  a  man 
who  had  almost  unwillingly  been  their  antagonist. 
By  the  people  generally  he  had  neither  been  loved 
nor  hated,  but  large  numbers  regarded  him  with 
respect  because  of  his  admitted  moderation  of 
character,  and  sympathised  with  him  for  an  im- 
prisonment which  hei  bore  with  dignity,  courage, 
and  good  temper.  Thus  his  acquittal  was  received 
with  approval  by  the  public.  *'  Our  friend,"  wrote 
Erasmus  Lewis  to  Swift,  on  the  day  after  Harley's 
release,  "has  at  present  many  more  friends  than 
ever  he  had  before  in  any  part  of  his  life."  Under 
these  circumstances  some  men  would  have  tried  to 
regain  political  power ;  but  though  Harley  did  not 
cease  to  take  a  part  from  time  to  time  in  parlia- 
mentary business,  he  never  made  a  vigorous 
attempt  to  recover  the  important  position  which  he 
had  held  so  long  among  contemporary  statesmen. 

In  his  own  age,  and  in  those  which  have 
followed,  there  have  been  many  who  have  con- 
sidered that  Harley  was  guilty  of  something  hardly 
distinguishable  from  treason.  But  the  charges 
which  have  been  made  against  him  appear  to  show 
a  complete  misconception  both  of  his  policy  and  of 
his  character,  even  of  the  common  methods  of 
contemporary  party  warfare.  **You  set  up  the 
Church  and  Sacheverell  against  us ;  and  we  set 
up  trade  and  the  Pretender  against  you  "  ;  ^  so  said, 

^  The  behaviour  of  the  Quceiis  last  Ministry y  Swift,  Works^  v.  313. 


HARLEY  AND    THE  JACOBITES   181 

with  much  frankness,  a  person  in  great  employment 
to  Swift.     For  a  party  policy  such  as  this  it  was 
necessary   that    suggestions    and    insinuations    of 
disloyalty   should   be   spread   abroad.      To  these, 
collected  in  memoirs   and  biographies,   too  much 
weight  is  apt  to  be  attached  in  succeeding  centuries. 
Not  a  little  has  been  made  of  a  statement  by 
the    Due    de    Berwick    that    the   Abb6   Gaultier 
brought   him    definite    propositions    from    Harley 
for  the  succession  of  the  Pretender  after  the  death 
of  Anne.     But  nothing   is   clearer   than  that   the 
Berwick  Memoirs  must  be  scrutinised  closely  before 
they  are  accepted  as  historical  authority.     Berwick 
thus  begins  his  account :  '*  A  la  fin  de  17  lo  lAbb^ 
Gaultier,  dont  la  cour  de   France  se  servit  pour 
traiter  en  secret  de  la  paix  avec  lAngleterre,  vint 
me  trouver  a  St.  Germain  de  la  part  du  Comte 
d'Oxford,    nouvellement    fait    grand     tr^sorier."^ 
But  Harley  was  not   Earl   of  Oxford   and    Lord 
Treasurer  until  May  171 1.     In  this  passage  there 
is,  therefore,  a  radical  confusion,  throwing  suspicion 
on  the  whole  narrative,  which  throughout  has  the 
appearance  of  a  vague  summary  written  at  some 
time  long  after  the  years  of  which  it  tells.     A  little 
later,  the  narrative  says — 

**  Apres  ces  pr^liminaires,  nous  entrames  dans 
le  detail  des  moyens  de  parvenir   au  but;    mais 

^  Mimoires  du  Mardchal  du  Berwick^  Petitot  Collection,  Ixvi.  219. 


182  ROBERT   HARLEY 

I'abb^  ne  put  pour  cette  premiere  fois  entrer  dans 
un  grand  detail,  attendu  que  le  tr^sorier  ne  lui  avait 
pas  encore  blen  expllqu6  ses  intentions,  que  meme 
pr^alablement  a  tout  il  fallait  que  la  paix  ftit  con- 
clue  ;  sans  quoi  le  ministere  present  n  oserait 
entamer  une  matiere  si  delicate  a  manager." 

But  if  nothing  could  be  done  until  peace  was 
concluded,  one  object  of  which  was  the  safeguard- 
ing of  the  Hanoverian  succession,  and  the  carrying 
out  of  the  Act  of  Settlement,  it  is  obvious  that 
Harley  never  made  any  real  proposals  to  the  Due 
de  Berwick.  Gaultier's  business  was  to  collect  in- 
formation, and  it  is  probable  that  he  constantly 
placed  on  vague  conversations  definite  meanings 
which  they  were  never  intended  to  convey. 

If  the  evidence  of  Harley's  Jacobite  intrigues 
was  confined  to  such  statements  as  those  of 
Gaultier  and  to  current  rumours,  it  would  scarcely 
be  worthy  of  a  moment's  consideration.  It  has, 
however,  been  stated  that  while  he  was  in  the 
Tower  he  communicated  directly  with  the  Pre- 
tender. This  assertion  rests  on  a  passage  in  a 
letter  from  Harley  among  the  Stuart  papers,  which 
Sir  James  Macintosh  appears  to  have  seen,  but 
which  has  since  disappeared.  That  Harley  should 
have  written  this  letter  is  highly  improbable.  His 
position  at  the  moment  was  so  powerless — he  had 
no  partisans  to  please,  no  office  to  retain — it  was  so 


HARLEY  AND  THE  JACOBITES    183 

essential  for  his  safety  at  that  time  not  to  endanger 
his  chance  of  Hberty,  that  it  is  difficult  to  believe  he 
would  venture  on  so  dangerous  a  course.  At  that 
very  moment,  also,  he  was  assuring  his  relatives  of 
his  innocence  and  of  his  honour.  On  13th  April 
1 7 16  he  wrote  to  his  brother  Nathaniel  at 
Aleppo — 

"  I  begin  a  letter  to  my  dearest  brother,  though 
I  do  not  know  that  my  weak  hand  will  obey  my 
heart  enough  to  write  more  than  a  very  few  lines. 
You  may  be  sure  I  have  received  the  frequent 
intelligence  of  your  coming  home  with  that  joy 
that  can  only  be  conceived  by  those  who  love  each 
other  so  entirely,  that  I  know  you  will  not  be 
displeased  to  receive  a  few  lines  from  me,  even 
out  of  this  place.  I  have  been  here  since  i6th 
July  17 1 5,  and  desire  only  to  come  out  with  the 
same  honour,  the  same  innocency,  as  I  came  in. 
I  know  I  have  served  my  country  successfully  and 
usefully,  my  Queen  faithfully,  and  observed  the 
laws  religiously  and  strictly,  to  which  I  have  not 
only  the  testimony  of  my  own  conscience,  but  the 
applause  of  nine  parts  in  ten  of  the  nation,  so  that 
I  will  not  exchange  my  integrity  and  a  prison  for 
the  mind  and  the  power  of  some  others."  ^ 

Then  on  March  23rd,    17 16,  he  writes  to  his 
brother  Edward — 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  521. 


184  ROBERT   HARLEY 

"...  nothing  Is  more  notoriously  known  than 
my  uniform  conduct  without  trepidation  in  the  two 
preceding  reigns  for  the  service  of  the  present 
Royal  Family ;  and  the  success  has  satisfied  all 
that  I  foretold  them  and  their  Ministers.  ...  I 
never  had  the  least  view  in  anything  I  did  for  the 
promoting  the  Protestant  succession  for  my  own 
private  advantage ;  my  only  motive  was  that  I 
thought  it  was  for  the  good  of  my  country."^ 

To  his  wife,  a  homely  woman  who  seldom  went 
near  the  Court,  he  said — 

*'.  .  .  as  I  look  for  no  favour,  so  I  shall  do 
nothing  towards  my  freedom  that  may  not  become 
the  character  of  an  English  gentleman,  and  I  will 
go  out  of  this  place  with  the  same  honour  and 
innocence  as  I  came  into  it." 

In  other  private  and  confidential  communica- 
tions Harley  emphatically  denied  that  he  had 
schemed  for  the  return  of  the  Pretender,  a  denial, 
the  truth  of  which  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that 
even  in  April  17 14  the  credulous  Gaultier  was  in 
doubt  of  the  Lord  Treasurer's  intentions,  and  that 
in  the  previous  February  Berwick  had  written  to 
James  that  Harley  in  his  conversations  with 
Ormonde  |*'  never  would  come  to  determination, 
though  pressed  very  home  by  the  other."  ^ 

These  two  instances  are  the  strongest  which 

^  Harley  Papers,  iii.  530.        2  Hist.  MSS.  Com. :  Stuart  Paper,  i.  294. 


HARLEY  AND   THE   ELECTOR    185 

have  been  advanced  against  Harley,  and  they  show 
the  danger  of  relying  too  much  on  mere  biographical 
relics ;  we  must  look  rather  to  his  character  and 
policy.  By  temperament  he  was  the  last  man  in 
the  world  to  plunge  into  anything  in  the  nature  of 
a  plot,  while  all  his  family  sympathies  and  his  early 
training  were  such  as  to  make  him  an  anti- Jacobite. 
Again  and  again  he  had  openly  declared  to  the 
Elector  his  zeal  for,  and  his  *'  inviolable  attachment " 
to,  the  Hanoverian  succession.^  His  expressions 
were  never  more  emphatic  than  in  17 14,  when 
Baron  Schutz,  the  Hanoverian  Envoy,  demanded 
a  Writ  of  Summons  to  the  House  of  Lords  for 
the  Electoral  Prince  by  virtue  of  his  peerage  as 
Duke  of  Cambridge.  He  seized  the  opportunity 
to  reiterate  his  attachment  to  the  house  of 
Hanover.  Writing  to  his  cousin,  Thomas  Harley, 
then  English  Envoy  at  Hanover,  he  said,  **  I  have 
thus  sincerely  opened  my  heart  to  you,  and  out  of 
the  warmest  zeal  for  the  interest  of  that  serene 
house,  I  beg  you  will  lay  this  before  His  Electoral 
Highness,  to  whom  with  my  humblest  duty  you 
may  give  the  utmost  assurances  mortal  man  is 
capable  of  doing.  I  will  do  my  utmost  to  calm 
things  here.  It  is  the  mutual  interest  of  the  Queen 
and  the  Elector  to  have  a  firm  friendship,  and  that 
the  world  should  know  it  so."^     It  is  impossible 

1  E.g.  Harley  to  Elector,  Oct.  5-16,  171 1,  Stowe  MS.,  224,  p.  178. 

2  Harley  Papers^  iii.  418  (13th  April  17 14). 


186  ROBERT   HARLEY 

not  to  contrast  these  statements  in  Harley's  own 
handwriting,  so  open  and  so  uncompromising,  with 
the  vague  gossip  upon  which  so  much  unjustified 
reliance  has  hitherto  been  set.  The  character  of 
his  poHcy  and  his  poHtical  position  as  leader  of  the 
Tory  party,  the  left  wing  of  which  was  Jacobite, 
required  that  he  should  from  time  to  time  make 
some  show  of  Jacobite  sympathies.  Still  it  is 
astonishing  that  men  could  have  been  so  long 
duped ;  "  that  which  was  most  wonderful  in  all 
this  part  was,"  says  De  Foe,  "  that  the  whole  body 
of  the  Jacobites  in  Britain  were  capable  of  being 
imposed  upon  to  such  a  degree,  and  that  it  was 
possible  the  Staff  could  use  them  as  tools  to  such  a 
length  and  not  take  one  real  step  in  their  favour, 
as  It  is  certain  he  never  did  ;  and  yet  they  should 
be  so  stupid,  as  that  to  the  last  four  months  or 
thereabouts  to  believe  him  in  their  interest."^  But 
as  the  Whigs  and  the  Elector's  advisers  were 
certainly  suspicious  of  him,  it  is  clear  that  he 
played  this  dangerous  game  with  a  realism 
sufficient  not  only  to  fool  the  Jacobites,  but  to 
negative  his  efforts  to  stand  well  with  the  Elector. 
"  It    is    true,"    wrote    Bothmar,    the    Hanoverian 

1  The  Secret  History  of  the  White  Staff,  ii.  12.  This  pamphlet 
contains  an  elaborate  defence  and  explanation  of  Harley's  conduct, 
but  he  did  not,  openly  at  least,  favour  it.  "  The  Whigs  brag  in  print 
they  caused  the  two  books  of  the  White  Staff  io  be  written,  and  the 
policy  is  plain.  He  ought  to  be  treated  as  a  fool  who  had  the  Staff, 
if  he  ever  encouraged  a  vindication." — Harley  to  Dr.  W.  Stratford  (?), 
23rd  November  17 14. 


HARLEY'S   POLICY  187 


Envoy,  in  July  17 14,  '*the  Treasurer  receives  me 
very  well,  but  the  question  is  if  he  is  sincere."^ 

No  more  elaborate  and  remarkable  political 
trickery — **  the  most  exquisite  piece  of  management 
that  has  been  acted  by  any  Minister  of  State  in 
this  or  the  last  age,"  is  De  Foe's  delicate  descrip- 
tion— is  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  English  politics. 
Barley's  action  is  the  more  striking  because  it  was 
that  not  of  a  bad  man  or  a  vicious  statesman,  but 
of  one  who  was  actuated  by  honourable  principles, 
and  by  a  desire  to  serve  his  country,  who  had 
little  or  nothing  to  gain  by  remaining  in  office, 
and  everything  to  lose  should  a  charge  of  treason 
be  brought  against  him.  To  act  so  as  to  hold  the 
good  opinion  of  the  moderate  members  of  two 
opposite  parties,  was  an  impossibility  under  the 
circumstances  of  that  particular  time.  To  show  a 
desire  for  the  Hanoverian  succession,  to  engage 
in  schemes  for  a  political  union  with  Halifax,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  affect  sympathy  with  the 
Pretender,  was  to  carry  a  difficult  political  intrigue 
to  a  point  which  could  hardly  fail  to  result  in 
political  disaster.  But  whatever  we  may  think  of 
Harley's  methods,  they  were  not  treasonable,  and 
when  he  reofarded  himself  as  an  ill-used  man  it  is 
impossible  to  doubt  the  genuineness  of  the  feeling. 
Certainly,  too,  the  Jacobitism  of  the  Tory  party 
in  England  has  been  exaggerated,  for  there  is  no 

^  Macpherson  Papers^  ii.  633. 


188  ROBERT   HARLEY 

evidence  of  any  real  and  practical  scheme  for  the 
restoration  of  the  Pretender.  If  he  could  have 
returned  to  the  throne  under  a  new  parliamentary 
title,  or  if  on  an  armed  attempt  considerable  popular 
enthusiasm  had  been  shown  for  his  cause,  there 
were  many  who  would  have  welcomed  him.  There 
was  much  correspondence  of  an  indefinite  kind  with 
France,  and  expressions  of  sympathy  were  constantly 
conveyed  across  the  Channel ;  but  of  any  bold  and 
thorough  scheme  to  place  the  son  of  James  ii.  on 
the  throne  there  is  no  sign. 

It  may  be  doubted  even  whether  Bollngbroke, 
who  in  1 7 14  had  become  the  real  leader  of  the 
Tories,  had  determined  on  his  future  action  should 
the  Queen  remain  alive.  We  know  that  he  had 
decided  to  construct  a  strong  Tory  Government 
and  fortify  it  In  the  country.  Having  accomplished 
— If  he  could — that  object,  there  were  two  courses 
open  to  him  :  either  to  be  content  to  remain  in 
power  as  head  of  a  Tory  Administration,  accepting 
the  Act  of  Settlement,  or  to  endeavour  to  make 
use  of  his  supremacy  to  bring  back  the  Pretender 
before  the  Queen  died.  The  only  reason  for 
this  latter  policy  was  that  if  James  were  on  the 
throne  Bollngbroke's  personal  authority  would  be 
more  assured  and  more  considerable  than  under 
the  Elector ;  and  his  ambition  and  love  of  power 
were  so  remarkable  that  it  is  a  reason  to  which 
weight  must  be  attached.     If,  on  the  other  hand, 


TORY  AIMS    IN    1714  189 

the  Queen  were  to  die  before  the  Act  of  Settlement 
was  repealed,  the  new  King  would  at  any  rate  be 
received  by  a  Tory  Ministry  who  would  take  good 
care  to  capture  the  inexperienced  sovereign,  and 
would  be  able  to  retain  their  places  at  the  beginning 
of  another  reign.  Bolingbroke,  unlike  Harley,  was 
free  from  Whig  associations  and  Whig  principles, 
and  he  might  well  believe  that  from  a  purely  Tory 
vantage  point  the  game  in  either  eventuality  was 
in  his  hands.  His  plans  failed  because  he  lacked 
Harley 's  sagacious  understanding  both  of  public 
opinion  and  public  men,  and  had  not  the  personal 
authority,  the  clear  sight,  and  the  vigorous  deter- 
mination to  dominate  a  crisis.  Whether,  however, 
we  consider  the  policy  and  position  of  Harley  or  of 
Bolingbroke — or  indeed  of  any  prominent  member 
of  the  Tory  party — it  should  never  be  forgotten 
that  for  party  purposes  no  charge  by  the  Whigs 
was  so  effective  as  an  accusation  of  Jacobitism. 
Unless  the  Elector  and  the  English  people  were 
effectually  prejudiced  against  the  advisers  of  the 
Queen,  there  was  always  a  danger  that  they  might 
remain  in  office  under  a  new  sovereign ;  and  that 
danger  was  painfully  present  to  the  minds  of  the 
Whigs  whenever  they  reflected  on  Harley  and  on 
his  remarkable  career. 

Before  finally  passing  away  from  the  period  of 
Harley 's  imprisonment,  it  should  be  noted  how  he 
was  the  last  statesman  to  hold  high  office,  and  to  find 


190  ROBERT   HARLEY 

himself  in  the  Tower.  Thus  he  is  unquestionably  a 
link  between  the  old  and  the  new  political  systems. 
At  the  very  moment  when  English  parties  were  as- 
suming their  modern  forms,  the  statesman  who 
more  than  any  other  of  the  age  was  democratic  in 
his  sensitiveness  to  public  opinion,  became  a  victim 
to  the  methods  of  the  pre-revolutionary  era,  set  in 
motion  by  party  leaders  and  from  party  bitterness. 
The  circumstances  in  which  Harley's  last  years 
in  office  were  passed  were  so  exceptional  and  so 
dramatic,  that  the  little  which  remained  to  him  of 
political  life  after  his  release  from  the  Tower  in  1 7 1 7 
appears  tame  and  commonplace.  From  the  moment 
when  he  reached  the  peerage,  his  quiet  energy  had 
abated,  and  a  certain  dilatoriness  of  mind  and  action 
characterised  the  last  period  of  his  administration. 
In  retirement  this  inertia  increased,  and  after  171 7 
Harley  seldom  took  any  part  in  current  politics. 
In  1718  he  spoke  in  the  debate  on  the  state  of  the 
coinage,^  and  a  few  weeks  later  opposed  the  Mutiny 
Bill  ^  of  the  Ministry,  basing  his  opposition  to  it  both 
on  the  constitutional  ground  that  courts  martial 
were  inconsistent  with  civil  liberty,  and  on  the 
practical  reason  that  the  number  of  men  asked  for 
by  the  Government  was  too  large  from  a  political 
and  financial  point  of  view.  Walpole  was  at  first 
a  leading  opponent  of  the  measure,  and  in  the 
dissensions  of  the  Whigs  one  may  probably  perceive 

1  Pari.  Hist.,  vii.  533.  *  ParU  Hist,^  vii.  538. 


THE   PEERAGE   BILL,   1719        191 

the  real  cause  of  this  parliamentary  attack  on  a 
Bill  which  was  easily  capable  of  defence,  since  a 
standing  army  could  not  be  governed  by  the  common 
law,  and  in  numbers  a  reduction  had  been  made. 
But  a  statesman  who  had  been  kept  by  his  opponents 
for  two  years  in  the  Tower  could  scarcely  be  ex- 
pected to  lose  this  opportunity,  especially  in  an 
age  when  party  spirit  was  so  strong.  The  Peerage 
Bill  introduced  by  Sunderland  and  Stanhope  in 
the  following  year  was  a  more  fitting  object  of 
opposition,  and  the  vigour  with  which  Harley 
attacked  it  seemed  to  suggest  that  he  was  about 
to  take  again  an  active  part  in  contemporary 
politics.  By  this  measure  a  radical  change  in  the 
constitution  was  proposed,  not  for  constitutional 
reasons,  but  for  the  purposes  of  party  safety  ;  for 
the  Whigs  were  alarmed,  lest  on  the  accession  to 
the  throne  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  an  unlimited 
creation  of  peers  should,  as  in  17 12,  overthrow  their 
power  in  that  House  of  Parliament  where  they 
were  strongest.  The  object  of  it  was  to  prevent 
the  increase  of  the  existing  number  of  English 
peers  by  more  than  six,  though  it  permitted  the 
creation  of  a  new  on  the  extinction  of  an  old  peerage. 
It  shortened  the  tenure  of  future  peerages  by 
limiting  them  to  the  grantees  and  the  heirs  male 
of  their  body.  It  proposed  to  replace  the  sixteen 
elective  peers  of  Scotland  by  twenty-five  hereditary 
noblemen.      It  would  necessarily  have  resulted  in 


192  ROBERT   HARLEY 

an  alteration  of  the  character  of  the  English  peerage, 
which  would  have  become  a  caste  apart  from  and 
ceasing  to  be  replenished  by  the  middle  classes. 
Harley  had  every  motive  to  oppose  it :  he  had 
seen  the  utility,  as  a  political  mechanism,  of  the 
royal  prerogative  to  create  peers,  and  had  used  it 
on  the  popular  side.  As  one  of  those  who  had 
passed  from  the  ranks  of  the  landed  gentry  to  the 
House  of  Peers,  he  could  recognise  the  value  of 
the  existing  constitution ;  as  a  Tory  and  a  party 
politician,  he  might  not  be  without  hope  that,  after 
the  secession  of  Walpole  and  Townshend  from 
the  Ministry  in  17 17,  a  union  of  dissatisfied  Whigs 
with  the  Tories  might  replace  him  in  power.  Thus, 
from  the  moment  this  constitutional  question  was 
pressed  on  the  attention  of  Parliament,  he  opposed 
it   actively,^   not   only   in    Parliament  but   in    the 

^  The  following  are  the  steps  of  this  measure  : — 
1719 
28th  Feb.  The  Duke  of  Somerset  moved  and  the  Duke  of  Argyll 
seconded  that  a  day  be  appointed  for  the  House 
to  be  in  Committee  to  take  into  consideration  the 
present  state  of  the    peerage  of  Great   Britain. 
This  motion  was  opposed  by  the  Earl  of  Oxford. 
2nd  March.  Message  from  the  King  relinquishing  his  prerogative 

of  creating  peers. 
4th  March.  Resolutions  embodying  the  principle  of  the  Bill  were 
passed  by  83  to  30. 
March-April.  Bill  passed  first  and  second  readings,  and  not  further 
proceeded  with. 
25th  Nov.  Bill  again  introduced  and  passed  in  the  House  of 
Lords. 
8th  Dec.  Bill  rejected  in  the  Commons  on  motion  that  it  be 
committed. 


END  OF  HARLEY'S  PUBLIC  LIFE     193 

country.  **  Above  an  hundred  peers  in  Scotland," 
wrote  Lord  Balmerino  to  him  on  the  i6th  of  March 
1 719,  "owe  your  Lordship  humble  thanks."^ 

Though  unable  in  the  House  of  Peers  to 
prevent  the  progress  of  this  measure,  Harley's 
efforts  were  certainly  not  without  influence  in  the 
country  ;  and  though  it  was  to  Walpole  and  the 
House  of  Commons  that  the  destruction  of  the  Bill 
was  finally  due,  the  late  Lord  Treasurer's  conduct 
at  this  juncture  must  always  be  placed  to  his  credit 
as  a  patriotic  statesman. 

But  the  rejection  of  this  Bill  did  not  overthrow 
the  Government ;  on  the  contrary,  it  apparently 
strengthened  the  position  of  Stanhope  and 
Sunderland,  since  it  induced  them  to  bring  back 
Walpole  and  Townshend  to  their  Administration. 
Thus  any  hope  which  Harley  might  have  had  of 
securing  some  kind  of  Tory-Whig  combination 
fell  to  the  ground.  On  May  i6th,  Harley  had 
written,  "I  congratulate  the  time  being  come  that 
the  wolf  dwells  with  the  lamb,  and  the  leopard  lies 
down  with  the  kid.  These  are  very  happy  prog- 
nostics." But  the  omens  were  fallacious,  and  at 
the  end  of  the  year  Harley  was  definitely  and 
finally  without  hope  of  office. 

In  his  retirement — sometimes  in  Herefordshire, 
sometimes  at  Wimpole  —  he  more  and  more 
became  isolated  from  that  public  life  in  which  he 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  58. 
13 


194  ROBERT   HARLEY 

had  lately  taken  so  noteworthy  a  part.  In  1720, 
when  the  minds  of  men  were  engrossed  with  the 
South  Sea  Company,  then  so  rapidly  falling  to  ruin, 
some  efforts  seem  to  have  been  made  to  induce 
him  to  come  to  London  and  save  the  situation. 
The  public  originator  of  the  scheme,  many  looked 
to  him  for  assistance  in  this  time  of  trouble  ;  but  he 
could  have  done  nothing,  and  he  did  do  nothing. 
Speculation  and  avarice  must  have  their  necessary 
results,  and  any  effort  to  stay  the  course  of  events 
would,  he  thought,  be  unavailing. 

And  so  he  lived  on  quietly,  his  leisure  occupied 
with  country  life,  or  broken  by  a  rare  visit  to 
London,  interested  in  his  own  and  his  brother's 
family,  content  with  his  bowls  and  his  books,  and 
with  watching  the  increase  of  that  library  which  to 
many  is  his  most  enduring  monument. 

Considerably  removed  from  the  centre  of 
political  and  literary  activity,  he  yet  kept  up  some 
intercourse  with  his  former  associates,  though  his 
growing  indolence,  arising  from  bad  health,  made 
him  rather  a  receiver  than  a  giver  of  correspondence. 
Bromley — one  of  the  pillars  of  the  High  Church 
party — who  had  served  with  him  in  his  Administra- 
tion, had  time  to  write  to  him  pessimistic  letters 
on  the  state  of  affairs.  Prior  occasionally  corre- 
sponded with  him.  The  accomplished  diplomatist 
and  poet,  in  bad  health,  not  overburdened  with 
money,  an  exile  from  political  life,  found  in  Harley's 


PRIOR   AND   HARLEY  195 

family  the  solace  of  his  later  years  ;  Wimpole,  the 
house  of  Harley's  eldest  son,  was  more  a  home  to 
him  than  his  own  Down  Hall.  "  I  do  not  think 
myself,"  he  says  on  23rd  December  1720,  **more 
sensibly  obliged  to  Lord  Harley  for  any  favour  I 
have  lately  received  from  him  than  for  the  news 
he  gives  me  of  your  being  better  as  to  your  health, 
and  to  those  wishes  which  he  daily  makes  with 
the  piety  of  an  excellent  son.  I  know  you  will 
give  me  leave  to  add  mine,  with  the  sincerity  of 
a  faithful  friend.  I  have  almost  wintered  here, 
and  indeed  have  been  detained  for  a  month  past 
by  an  indisposition  which  kept  me  within  doors, 
which  was  the  only  trouble  I  found  from  the  illness, 
for  your  son  has  treated  me  with  kindness,  which 
prevented  me  asking  anything,  and  with  a  freedom 
which  made  me  think  I  was  in  Duke  Street,  at 
Prior's  own  palace.  I  am  going  thither  in  three 
or  four  days,  and  shall  not  stir  from  thence  till 
either  you  come  towards  Lincoln's  Inn  or  Lord 
Harley  to  Dover  Street,  for  I  am  frightened  with 
the  roaring  of  the  South  Sea,  and  tired  with  the 
madness  of  the  people.  .  .  .  This  is  the  world, 
my  Lord,  and  the  same  tricks  are  played  in  Courts 
and  camps,  universities  and  hospitals,  and  so  men 
act  and  have  acted,  for  the  proof  which  your 
Lordship  and  your  humble  servant  need  not  read 
much  history.  There  are  some  exceptions  to  this 
rule,  but  I  think  I  might  name  them  all  without 


196  ROBERT   HARLEY 

writing  to  the  bottom  of  the  page ;  but  I  am  tired 
with  the  thought,  and  will  quit  it  for  a  pleasanter, 
which  is  that  of  telling  you  we  are  all  in  perfect 
good  health.     My  Lord,  Yours,  Mathew."^ 

In  less  than  a  year — on  September  i8th,  1721 
— this  accomplished  and  versatile  man  died  at 
Wimpole.  "His  death,"  wrote  Lord  Harley  to 
Humphrey  Wanley,  "is  of  great  trouble  to  us  all 
here,  but  I  have  this  satisfaction,  that  nothing  was 
wanting  to  preserve  his  life." 

Swift  sometimes  wrote  to  him.  In  political 
misfortune  he  had  stood  staunchly  by  his  patron. 
Five  days  after  being  committed  to  the  Tower, 
Harley  had  received  from  him  a  letter  which 
began  :  "It  may  look  an  idle  or  officious  thing 
in  me  to  give  your  Lordship  any  interruption 
under  your  present  circumstances ;  yet  I  could 
never  forgive  myself  if,  after  being  treated  with 
the  greatest  kindness  and  distinction  by  a  person 
of  your  Lordship's  virtue,  I  should  omit  making 
you  at  this  time  the  humblest  offers  of  my  poor 
service  and  attendance."  Distance,  engrossment 
in  Irish  affairs,  the  absence  of  reciprocal  com- 
munication, did  not,  as  time  elapsed,  lessen  the 
fidelity  of  this  friendship.^ 

*  Harley  Papers^  iii.  6io. 

2  Sir  Henry  Craik  suggests  that  Harley,  in  obtaining  only  the 
Deanery  of  St.  Patrick  (17 13)  for  Swift,  had  shown  ingratitude  for 
his  services  :  "  Swift  was  vexed  at  the  vacillation,  at  the  strain  which 
a  return  so  much  under  his  deserts  had  called  for.    The  picture  of 


After  a  pictKrc  by  Thoi, 


MATTHEW  PRIOR 

Hudson  froui  a  portrait  by  Jonathan  Richardson  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery 


SWIFT  AND    HARLEY  197 

"  Bussy  Rabutin," — Swift  thus  wrote  from  Dublin 
on  6th  November  1723, — *'in  his  exile  of  twenty 
years  writ  every  year  a  letter  to  the  King,  only  to 
keep  himself  in  memory,   but  never  received  an 
answer.     This  hath  been  my  fortune,   and  yet  I 
love  you  better  than  ever  I  did,  and  I  believe  you 
do  not  love  me  worse.     I  ever  gave  great  allow- 
ance to  the  laziness  of  your  temper  in  the  article  of 
writing  letters,  but  I  cannot  pardon  your  forgetful- 
ness  in  sending  me  your  picture.     If  you  were  still 
a  first  Minister,  I  would  hardly  excuse  your  promise 
of  nine  years ;  I  will  be  revenged,  I  will  put  Lord 
Harley,  nay,  I  will  put  Lady  Harriet,  upon  you. 
Mr.    Minet  hath  sometimes  made  me  uneasy  with 
his  accounts  of  your  health  ;  but  he  and  the  public 
papers  being  silent  in  that  particular,  I  am  in  hopes 
it  is  established  again.     I  am  recovering  mine  by 
riding,  in  hopes  to  get  enough  one  summer  to  attend 
you   at    Brampton  Castle,   for   I   have  a  thousand 
things  to  say  to  you  in  relation  to  somewhat  quod 
et  hunc  in  annum  vivat  et  plures.     Be  so  kind  in 
two  lines  to  invite  me  to  your  house ;  you  asked 
me  once  when   you  governed    Europe  whether    I 
was  ashamed  of  your   company ;    I  ask   you  now 
whether  you  are  ashamed  of  mine.     It  is  vexatious 


timidity,  shuffling,  and  ingratitude  on  the  part  of  Oxford  is  not  a 
pleasant  one"  {Life  of  Swift ^  p.  261).  Harley  seems  to  have  done 
the  best  he  could  for  Swift,  and  the  latter,  if  not  satisfied,  was  certainly 
not  displeased  with  Harley. 


198  ROBERT  HARLEY 

that  I,  who  never  made  court  to  you  in  your  great- 
ness, nor  ask  anything  from  you,  should  be  now 
perpetually  teasing  for  a  letter  and  a  picture. 
While  you  were  Treasurer  you  never  refused  me 
when  I  solicited  for  others  ;  why  in  your  retirement 
will  you  always  refuse  me  when  I  solicit  for  myself  ? 
I  want  some  friend  like  myself  near  you  to  put  you 
out  of  your  play.  In  my  conscience  I  think  that 
you,  who  were  the  humblest  of  men  in  the  height  of 
power,  are  grown  proud  by  adversity,  which  I  confess 
you  have  borne  in  such  a  manner  that  if  there  be 
any  reason  why  a  mortal  should  be  proud,  you 
have  it  all  on  your  side.  But  I,  who  am  one  of 
those  few  who  never  flattered  or  deceived  you 
when  you  were  in  a  station  to  be  flattered  and 
deceived,  can  allow  no  change  of  conduct  with 
regard  to  myself,  and  I  expect  as  good  treatment 
from  you  as  if  you  were  still  first  minister.  Pray, 
my  Lord,  forgive  me  this  idle  way  of  talk,  which 
you  know  was  always  my  talent,  and  yet  I  am  very 
serious  in  it,  and  expect  you  will  believe  me,  and 
write  to  me  soon,  and  comply  with  everything  I 
desire.  It  is  destined  that  you  should  have  great 
obligations  to  me,  for  who  else  knows  how  to 
deliver  you  down  to  posterity,  though  I  leave  you 
behind  me  ?  Therefore  make  your  court  and  use 
me  well,  for  I  am  to  be  bribed,  though  you  never 
were.  I  pray  God  preserve  you  and  your  illustrious 
family  (for   I    hope  that   title  is  not   confined  to 


DEATH   OF   HARLEY  199 

'  Germanes'),  and  that  you  may  live  to  save  your 
country  a  second  time."  ^ 

But  in  those  days  Herefordshire  and  Ireland 
were  far  apart,  and  Swift  and  Harley  were  never  to 
meet  again  ;  for  little  more  than  six  months  later, 
on  May  21st,  1724,  Harley,  whose  health  had  for 
some  time  been  failing,  died  during  one  of  his  short 
visits  to  London  at  a  house  in  Albemarle  Street. 
His  body  was  borne  to  Brampton,  and  laid  in  the 
quiet  churchyard  with  his  worthy  fathers.  Within 
the  church  a  marble  tablet  was  placed  to  his 
memory,  on  which  are  narrated  the  chief  events  in 
his  life,  and  on  which  the  four  last  lines  of  Pope's 
famous  dedication  are  inscribed  as  an  epitaph. 
"His  friendship  and  conversation,"  wrote  Swift  to 
the  new  Earl,^  on  hearing  of  his  death,  *'  you  will 
ever  want,  because  they  are  qualities  so  rare  in  the 
world,  and  in  which  he  so  much  excelled  all  others." 
Harley  could  not  have  asked  for  a  more  pleasing 
epitaph,  and,  a  little  overstrained  though  it  may  be. 


^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  636. 

2  Harley  had  by  his  first  wife:  Edward,  Lord  Harley  (1689-1741), 
who  married  Henrietta  Cavendish,  daughter  of  John,  first  Duke  of 
Newcastle  ;  Elizabeth,  who  married  the  third  Duke  of  Leeds  ;  and 
Abigail,  who  married  the  seventh  Earl  of  Kinnoul.  The  title  became 
extinct  on  the  death  of  Alfred,  sixth  Earl  of  Oxford,  in  1853.  The 
estates  devolved  on  his  sister.  Lady  Langdale,  and  on  her  death  in 
1872,  Robert  William  Daker  Harley,  a  direct  descendant  of  Sir  Bryan 
de  Harley,  son  of  Sir  Robert  de  Harley.     See  p.  6. 

Harley's  second  wife  (marriage  Oct.  1694)  was  Sarah,  hitherto  said 
to  be  dau^jHter  of  Simon  Middleton,  but  see  Harley  Papers^  i.  552,  554 
(widow?).    See  ante^  p.  13. 


200  ROBERT   HARLEY 

it  stated  with  truth  his  most  agreeable  characteristic. 
It  is  the  last  word  in  a  personal  union  which  ex- 
hibits in  Swift  a  constant  heart  and  an  independent 
spirit,  in  Harley  the  recognition  of  genius,  of  tried 
and  invaluable  services,  and  of  a  friendship  which 
was  unbroken  in  good  fortune  and  in  adversity. 

Harley 's  courage  and  patience,  his  good  temper 
and  absence  of  pride  and  affectation,  were  very  attrac- 
tive to  Swift,  and  no  one  had  better  opportunities 
of  perceiving  them.  To  us  it  is  as  a  politician 
that  he  is  chiefly  interesting.  With  many  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  modern  Liberal,  perceptive 
of  popular  forces  and  of  the  value  of  the  Press, 
he  lived  in  an  age  of  transition,  when  other  in- 
fluences had  still  to  be  carefully  considered — the 
wishes  of  the  Queen,  the  persistence  and  union 
of  the  Whig  party,  the  hopes  and  fears  of  men 
who  favoured  the  Stuarts  or  the  house  of  Hanover, 
an  element  in  party  politics  which  has  never  since 
existed.  He  was  always  a  friend  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  and  in  his  opposition  to  a  large 
standing  army  under  William  iii.,  even  in  his 
vacillation  as  to  the  Schism  Bill, — events  at  the 
beginning  and  the  end  of  his  career, — we  see  this 
political  conviction  in  imperfect  but  real  action. 

In  the  history  of  English  parties  Harley  holds 
a  unique  place,  for  he  was  the  first  party  leader  in 
the  modern  political  understanding  of  the  term,  and 
he  was,  from  the  fall  of  Godolphin  to  a  few  days 


HARLEY'S   PUBLIC   CHARACTER    201 

before  the  death  of  Anne,  acknowledged  as  their 
chief  by  every  one  of  the  Tories,  not  excepting 
Bolingbroke.  On  the  other  side,  no  statesman 
was  in  the  same  position,  for  the  Whigs  were 
led  by  a  group  of  noblemen,  not  one  of  whom  would 
have  admitted  the  supremacy  of  the  other ;  and  it 
was  not  until  Walpole  had  attained  to  a  position 
of  undoubted  authority  over  the  Whigs,  that  any 
leader  held  a  distinct  personal  ascendancy  over 
Harley's  former  opponents.  Harley,  too,  was  the 
first,  but  not  the  last,  of  those  chiefs  of  the  Tory 
party  who,  while  acknowledged  as  their  leader, 
has  had  singularly  little  sympathy  with  the  bulk 
of  his  followers. 

Sprung  from  the  landed  gentry  and  a  land- 
owner himself,  and  well  acquainted  with  the  wants 
and  the  wishes  of  the  rural  population,  he  was  yet 
in  sympathy  with  the  commercial  aspirations  of 
the  country,  occupying  for  a  time  the  chief  place  in 
the  most  important  commercial  corporation  of  the 
age.  Indeed,  throughout  the  whole  of  Harley's 
career,  we  are  constantly  reminded  of  the  expan- 
sion of  Great  Britain  :  we  see  it  in  the  South  Sea 
scheme,  and  in  the  capturing  of  the  Assiento 
Contract,  which,  while  it  made  England  the  chief 
slave-trading  nation  of  the  age,  was  a  signal  mark 
of  her  approaching  commercial  supremacy.  It  is 
visible,  too,  in  her  territorial  enlargement,  in  the 
I  possession  of  Hudson  Bay  and  Acadie,  which  were 


202  ROBERT  HARLEY 

valued  by  the  nation  for  the  opportunities  they 
gave  for  the  employment  of  increasing  wealth  and 
modern  energy.  They  were  steps  in  the  evolution 
of  England,  growing  from  an  insular  kingdom  to  a 
world-wide  power ;  and  as  in  Harley  we  note  a 
statesman  perceptive  above  others  of  the  influence 
of  literature  and  journalism,  so  in  him  we  also 
observe  a  mind  alive  to  the  needs  of  a  growing 
commercial  community. 

Throughout  his  public  life  Harley  was  in  favour 
of  peace,  of  national  economy,  and  of  financial 
purity.  His  bitterest  enemy  never  brought  a 
charge  against  his  uprightness  in  regard  to  money 
matters,  whether  public  or  private.  Of  this  purity 
he  could  be  justly  proud,  in  an  age  when  public 
men  could  and  did  secretly  enrich  themselves  at 
the  expense  of  the  nation,  and  when  such  conduct 
was  easily  pardoned.  So  far,  indeed,  from  becom- 
ing more  wealthy  by  official  life,  Harley  was 
actually  poorer,^  and  we  cannot  find  a  single 
accusation  against  him  in  this  respect,  in  memoirs, 
pamphlets,  or  party  rhymes,  in  years  when  political 
enmity  struck  with  personal  weapons,  when  blame 
and  praise  were  both  strongly  marked  by  exaggera- 
tion. **  If  a  man  was  ever  born  under  the  necessity 
of  being  a  knave,  he  was,"  ^  is  the  acrid  description 
of  Harley  which  one  of  his  most  formidable  Whig 
opponents  has  handed  down  to  posterity.     Against 

^  Harley  Papers^  iv.  208.    See  App.  ii.  ^  Cowper*s  Diary^  p.  33. 


RETIREMENT  203 

it  we  may  set  Pope's  praise  of  his  philosophic 
tranquillity  in  retirement,  which  is  as  much  too 
complimentary  as  Bolingbroke's  posthumous  and 
depreciatory  damnation  is  unjust — 

"A  soul  supreme,  in  each  hard  instance  try'd, 
Above  all  pain,  all  passion,  and  all  pride ; 
The  rage  of  power,  the  blast  of  public  breath, 
The  lust  of  lucre,  and  the  dread  of  death." 

These  fine  lines  are  scarcely  applicable  to  a  states- 
man with  a  body  and  mind  wearied  by  toilsome 
and  anxious  political  life,  who  could  no  longer 
serve  his  country.  Fortunate  in  his  love  of  books 
and  literature,  in  a  united  and  sympathetic 
family,  having  sufficient  means,  country  tastes,  a 
high  position,  and  a  tranquil  temperament,  Harley 
could  pass  with  contentment  the  last  decade  of  life 
among  the  pleasant  country  scenes  of  Hereford- 
shire, and  in  the  library  at  Wimpole. 

In  looking  back  upon  the  life  of  a  statesman, 
there  is  perceptible  an  obvious  division  between 
foreign  and  domestic  affairs.  For  Englishmen, 
from  the  time  when  Harley's  career  commenced, 
there  were  two  simple  and  opposite  foreign  policies : 
that  of  William  iii.,  which  he  bequeathed  to  the 
Whigs — by  which,  in  his  own  words,  England  was 
to  hold  *'the  balance  of  Europe,"  and  which,  how- 
ever gratifying  to  its  pride,  involved  this  country  in 
continental  disputes — and  a  policy  of  non-interven- 
tion, of  regarding  Great  Britain  primarily  as  a  sea 


204  ROBERT    HARLEY 

power  unconcerned  with  the  disputes  of  Europe,  un- 
less they  directly  affected  English  interests.  When 
Harley  in  1697  opposed  a  large  standing  army,  he 
commenced  an  adherence  to  the  latter  policy  from 
which  he  never  deviated,  one  practical  result  of 
which  was  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht.  It  necessarily 
follows  that,  in  the  mind  of  a  statesman  holding  such 
opinions,  foreign  questions  must  occupy  a  secondary 
place,  and  thus  Harley  appears  to  have  had  but 
a  limited  knowledge  of,  and  no  strong  interest 
in,  the  details  of  continental  affairs,  and  he  has 
left  no  mark  upon  this  department  of  Govern- 
ment. He  took  a  far  larger  share  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  finances  of  the  country.  Though  a 
careful  administrator,  he  had  neither  the  large 
mental  outlook  nor  the  daring  to  venture  on 
schemes  involving  novelty.  He  was  content  with 
lotteries,  land-taxes,  and  the  excise,  while  the  re- 
markable plan  with  which  his  name  is  connected,  the 
South  Sea  Company,  was  not  based  on  any  new 
ideas  of  his  own,  and  the  practical  application  of 
those  on  which  it  was  framed  was  probably  due  to  the 
bolder  mind  of  De  Foe.  As  a  domestic  politician, 
Harley  would  in  quiet  times,  and  in  an  age  when 
party  feeling  was  less  bitter,  when  the  ethics  of 
party  warfare  had  become  clearer,  and  when  all 
doubts  as  to  the  succession  to  the  throne  had 
passed  away,  have  gained  a  solid  and  lasting 
reputation ;   for,   to   employ   an   admirable  phrase 


CAUSES   OF   HARLEY'S   SUCCESS     205 

of  Bagehot's,  he  abounded  in  pacific  discretion. 
By  indefatigable  labour  and  perseverance  in  a 
single  career,  fair  abilities,  a  considerable  capacity 
for  business,  remarkable  tact,  and  an  unusual  gift 
for  perceiving  the  drift  of  parliamentary  and  public 
opinion,  with  the  assistance  derived  from  the 
reputation  of  his  family  and  from  local  position, 
he  was  enabled  to  reach  a  high  political  place. 
But  a  lifelong  Whig  by  opinion  and  tempera- 
ment, he  became  the  head  of  a  Tory  Ministry, 
chiefly  because  that  party  was  opposed  to  a  war 
policy — in  other  words,  was  in  favour  of  peace 
and  retrenchment,  the  watchwords  of  the  Whigs 
of  a  later  generation.  But  when  the  Treaty  of 
Utrecht,  by  producing  a  European  peace,  took 
from  the  Tories  the  element  in  their  policy  which 
was  the  bond  of  union  between  them  and  Harley, 
his  position  as  head  of  that  party  was  impossible 
and  anomalous,  and  he  lacked  the  boldness  at  once 
to  break  away  from  it.  But  for  the  war  Harley 
could  not  have  remained  for  so  long  the  leader  of 
the  Tories.  The  desire  for  peace  had,  during  its 
continuance,  made  party  dissatisfaction  harmless, 
but  the  moment  this  influence  was  removed  party 
feeling  caused  Harley 's  position  to  become  un- 
tenable. That  their  leader  should  try  to  carry 
into  public  affairs  the  Whig  doctrines  which  Locke 
had  enunciated  in  his  Letters  on  Toleration,  was  an 
anomaly  to  which  militant  Tories  could  not  submit. 


206  ROBERT   HARLEY 

Jealousy  and  fear  of  the  Nonconformists — increasing 
as  they  were  in  wealth  and  influence — was  the 
strongest  idea  in  the  Tory  mind  at  the  end  of  the 
reign  of  Queen  Anne,  and  as  the  Church  of  England 
was  as  yet  far  too  powerful  to  permit,  for  many 
years,  the  admittance  of  Nonconformists  to  all 
the  privileges  of  citizenship,  inevitable  as  in  time 
that  change  might  be,  it  was  certain  that  for 
Harley  even  to  temporise  on  this  question  made 
it  impossible  for  him  to  continue  as  leader  of  the 
Tories.  It  is  probable  that  Harley  perceived  the 
critical  point  in  his  political  career  at  which  he  had 
arrived,  but  his  failure  to  take  the  bold  and,  indeed, 
the  only  safe  action,  as  we  now  see  it  was,  resulted 
in  his  loss  alike  of  his  high  office  and,  what  was 
worse,  of  his  political  honour.  And  yet,  whether 
he  intended  it  or  not,  at  this  time  and  by 
action  unfortunate  for  his  reputation,  he  was 
doing  England  a  service.  He  prevented  Boling- 
broke  and  the  extreme  Tories  from  carrying  out 
schemes  which,  whether  they  were  treasonable  or 
not,  would  have  greatly  disturbed  the  tranquillity 
of  the  country.  He  so  temporised  with  his  col- 
leagues and  with  the  Pretender,  that  these  plans 
were  deferred,  and  the  Elector  succeeded  peace- 
fully to  the  throne.  If  Harley  could  have  passed 
safely  through  the  crisis  of  a  new  succession,  it 
is  not  impossible  that  his  close  and  friendly 
intercourse  with   Halifax  would  have  resulted  in 


HISTORICAL   CHARACTER        207 

a  union  between  himself  and  a  statesman  who  was 
the  least  hostile  of  the  Whigs  to  their  opponents ; 
and  then  Harley,  had  health  permitted,  might 
have  had  some  years  of  tranquil  power.  Instead, 
not  only  did  he  find  himself  permanently 
excluded  from  office,  but  he  became,  as  Boling- 
broke  said  with  bitter  truth,  "the  object  of  the 
derision  of  the  Whigs  and  of  the  indignation  of 
the  Tories."  He  tried,  in  an  age  of  extreme 
political  passions,  to  be  tolerant  and  moderate, 
but  his  good  intentions  involved  him  in  intrigues 
and  political  manoeuvres,  on  which  it  has  been 
his  misfortune  that  history  has  dwelt  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  any  appreciation  of  the  sterling  qualities 
which  he  certainly  possessed,  and  of  the  difficulties 
of  a  career  which  was  a  perpetual  dilemma ;  for 
he  had  not  attained  the  capacity  of  the  modern 
statesman,  to  deny  some  principles  in  order  to 
obtain  the  effectuating  of  others.  As  has  been 
well  said  of  an  incomparably  greater  man,  **  Nature 
had  endowed  him  with  a  power  of  keeping  his 
own  counsel,  that  was  sometimes  to  pass  for  dis- 
simulation." This  capacity,  as  well  as  his  modera- 
tion, made  men  throughout  his  life  doubtful  of 
his  good  faith.  His  policy  in  the  last  years  of 
office  seemed  to  his  contemporaries  a  confirmation 
of  all  the  suspicions  which  had  gathered  round  his 
career,  and  so  gave  him  a  reputation  with  posterity 
more  evil  than  was  deserved. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   BOOK-COLLECTOR.      THE  FRIEND   OF 
MEN   OF  LETTERS 

Harley's  Taste  for  collecting  Books  and  Manuscripts— 
A  Fashion  of  the  Age— Harley  as  a  Scholar— Humphrey 
Wanley  — Addition  of  the  D'Ewes  Collection  to  the 
Library— Enlarged  by  Edward,  Earl  of  Oxford— Its  Dis- 
persal—The Manuscripts  purchased  for  the  Nation  — 
Harley's  Friendship  with  Men  of  Letters— Swift,  Prior, 
Arbuthnot,  Gay— The  Brothers'  Club— The  Scriblerus 
Club— Politics  and  Letters  in  the  Age  of  Anne. 

SOME  knowledge  of  the  manner  in  which  an 
eminent  man  occupies  his  hours  of  leisure 
helps  to  elucidate  character,  and  sometimes  throws 
liofht  on  motives.  When  we  think  of  Burke 
sauntering  thoughtfully  and  observantly  over  his 
farm  at  Beaconsfield,  we  more  \eadily  understand 
him ;  and  when  we  recall  the  hot,  mad  midnight 
hours  which  Charles  Fox  so  keenly  enjoyed  round 
the  gambling  tables  in  St.  James'  Street,  we  realise 
more  clearly  the  nature  of  the  ardent  politician 
who  gloried  in  debate.  Nor  shall  we  have  com- 
pleted a  study  of  Robert  Harley  if  we  consider 
him  only  as  a  statesman  ;  we  must  picture  him 
carefully  purchasing  and  laboriously  perusing  his 

208 


TASTE   FOR  COLLECTING  BOOKS    209 

manuscripts.  There  Is  another  reason,  too,  why 
his  pastime  interests  this  generation — it  helped  to 
create  the  national  collection  which  now  exists  at 
the  British  Museum,  which  gives  to  his  name  a 
celebrity  besides  that  which  belongs  to  him  as 
one  of  the  first  party  leaders  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

To  the  collecting  of  rare  books  and  manuscripts 
Harley  brought  the  same  perseverance,  the  same 
choice  of  competent  assistants,  as  to  his  political 
business ;  and  in  his  taste  for  topographical  and 
antiquarian  works  is  visible  the  early  ardour  for 
documentary  research  that  enabled  him  to  become 
a  high  authority  on  parliamentary  history  and  pre- 
cedents. Among  his  books  Harley  found  recrea- 
tion, and  while  Godolphin  passed  his  leisure  in 
watching  his  horses  on  Newmarket  Heath,  his 
successor  was  creating  the  collection  of  which  the 
manuscripts  were  hereafter  to  become  the  property 
of  the  English  people.  In  this  pursuit  Harley  was 
not  singular,  since  in  his  day  it  was  a  fashion  of 
the  aristocracy  and  higher  clergy.  At  Althorp  the 
Earl  of  Sunderland,  Harley  s  most  bitter  political 
antagonist,  brought  together  a  costly  library ;  and 
students  even  complained  that  the  Quality,  for  their 
pleasure,  purchased  literary  and  antiquarian  rarities 
at  a  price  beyond  the  means  of  poor  men  who 
needed  them  for  the  purpose  of  their  work.  It 
was  a  characteristic  feature  of  a  society  which, 
14 


210  ROBERT   HARLEY 

whatever  may  have  been  its  political  faults,  ap- 
preciated and  cultivated  letters  and  intellectual 
alertness  ;  but  it  was  a  pastime  which  existed  only 
so  long  as  English  art  continued  in  comparative 
abeyance.  When,  towards  the  middle  of  the 
century,  the  abundant  fertility  of  the  genius  of 
Reynolds  and  Gainsborough  placed  delightful  pic- 
tures at  the  disposal  of  those  who  had  a  cultivated 
taste  and  a  long  purse,  the  vogue  for  the  collecting 
of  rare  books  gave  way  before  an  amusement  with 
which  the  formation  of  a  library  could  not  compete. 
The  enjoyments  of  Harley  and  Bolingbroke,  of 
Sunderland  and  Halifax,  were  in  marked  contrast 
to  the  coarse  pleasures  of  succeeding  reigns,  which 
culminated  in  the  gambling  rooms  in  St.  James' 
Street,  where  Charles  Fox  kept  a  faro  bank  at 
the  end  of  the  century.  We  must  look  across  the 
Channel,  to  the  Paris  of  D'Alembert  and  the  Due 
de  Choiseuil,  of  President  Hdnault  and  Montes- 
quieu, for  a  similar  combination  of  letters,  politics, 
and  pleasure.  But  Harley  was  no  mere  heedless 
follower  of  a  fashion  ;  even  in  the  darkest  hours 
of  life  he  happily  found  relief  in  his  manuscripts, 
and  during  his  long  imprisonment  in  the  Tower 
busied  himself  with  genealogical  inquiries  to  which 
they  gave  rise.^  Yet  the  more  his  life  is  studied, 
the  more  remarkable  does  this  taste  appear.  He 
had  no  literary  gifts,  though  he  dabbled  in  rhyme, 
^  Dartmouth  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.,  Corres.  nth  Rep.  App.  pt.  v.  324. 


THE   BOOK-COLLECTOR  211 

and — not  to  be  behind  the  times — wrote  trifling 
verses,  which  one  must  suppose  he  regarded  as 
having  some  merit,  since  they  were  shown  to 
Swift  and  Bolingbroke,  and  Gay  and  Pope.  Nor 
in  his  early  years  are  there  any  traces  of  a 
tendency  towards  scholarship  observable  in  his 
letters,  and  his  life  was  never  that  of  a  student. 
Before  he  became  a  member  of  Parliament  in  1689, 
he  passed  his  time  busy  in  the  conduct  of  local 
affairs  in  Herefordshire;  yet  by  the  year  1701  he 
was  well  known  as  a  bibliophile  and  patron  of 
authors.  "  I  have  been  in  Oxford,"  wrote  Dr. 
George  Hickes^  to  him,  "where  all  learned  men 
have  a  particular  esteem  and  veneration  for  you,"^ 
and  it  was  even  regarded  as  an  honour  to  be 
allowed  to  dedicate  erudite  works  to  him.  And 
though  from  the  moment  that  he  entered  Parlia- 
ment he  devoted  himself  to  its  business  with 
unusual  assiduity,  yet  by  the  year  1708  he  had 
found  leisure  enough  to  amass  so  large  a  collection, 
that  it  became  necessary  to  obtain  the  services  of 
the  most  capable  librarian  in  the  kingdom  to 
catalogue  and  to  take  charge  of  his  books  and 
manuscripts. 

Servile  as  were  then  many  scholars  and  digni- 
taries of  the  universities  before  a  public  man,  and 


1  1642-1715,  non-juror — a  learned  divine,  and  author  of  the  great 
Linguaruvi  veterum  septentrionalium  Thesaurus, 
^  Hurley  Papers^  ii.  21. 


212  ROBERT   HARLEY 

lavish  as  were  their  often  empty  compliments,  it 
cannot  be  doubted  that  Harley  had  managed  to 
accumulate  a  considerable  store  of  learning.  We 
may  safely  place  him  in  a  position  between  Swift's 
** perfect  master  of  the  learned  languages"  and 
Bolingbroke's  '*  no  great  scholar."  That  Harley 
should  ever  have  become  even  a  moderate  scholar 
is  evidence  of  remarkable  perseverance,  quiet 
energy,  and  an  inherent  desire  for  knowledge. 
Such  erudition  as  he  gained  by  formal  teaching 
in  youth  he  had  little  time  to  increase  when  he 
became  absorbed  in  public  life ;  yet  without  a 
university  education,  never  favoured  by  the  agree- 
able tranquillity  of  a  college  library,  he  acquired, 
even  in  the  opinion  of  the  most  critical  of  his 
contemporaries,  no  mean  reputation  for  learning. 
A  successful  collector  of  books  need  not  be  an 
exact  scholar,  but  without  considerable  attainments 
there  can  be  little  pleasure  in  a  library  created 
by  the  labour  of  competent  assistants ;  and  that 
Harley  throughout  his  life  found  enjoyment  in  his 
books  and  manuscripts,  there  is  not  the  smallest 
doubt. 

Harley  obviously  began  to  collect  books  at  an 
early  age,  since  in  April  1701,  the  year  in  which 
he    became    Speaker,    Humphrey   Wanley  ^    was 

^  Humphrey  Wanley,  1 672-1 726.  Born  at  Coventry.  In  1695 
matriculated  at  S.  Edmund  Hall,  Oxford,  proceeding  subsequently 
to  University  College.  At  twenty-three  compiled  catalogues  of 
MSS.  of  Coventry  School  and  the  Church  of  S.  Mary  at  Warwick. 


HUMPHREY   WANLEY,  F.R.S.,  F.S.A. 

From  a  ineszolint  after  a  picture  by  Thomas  Hill 


HUMPHREY  WANLEY  213 

introduced  to  him.  "This  gentleman,"  wrote  Dr. 
George  Hickes  in  the  letter  of  introduction,  *' is 
Mr.  Wanley  of  whom  I  spoke  to  you.  He  has 
the  best  skill  in  ancient  hands  and  MSS.  of  any 
man  not  only  of  this,  but  I  believe  of  any  former 
age,  and  I  wish  for  the  sake  of  the  public  that  he 
might  meet  with  the  same  public  encouragement 
here  that  he  would  have  met  with  in  France, 
Holland,  or  Sweden,  had  he  been  born  in  any  of 
these  countries."^  This  praise  was  not  exagge- 
rated. Apprenticed  to  a  draper  in  Coventry, 
Wanley,  when  a  youth,  had  turned  to  the  study 
and  to  the  translation  of  ancient  documents  with 
the  eagerness  which  an  English  boy  usually  re- 
serves for  his  games.  He  was  a  man  such  as 
Harley  liked — trusty,  full  of  knowledge  and  genial, 
keen  at  a  bargain,  and  not  averse  to  carry  it 
through  in  a  tavern  over  a  bottle  of  wine. 
Throughout  his  life  he  showed  an  unquenchable 
enthusiasm  for  seeking  out,  verifying,  and  obtain- 
ing rare  books  and  manuscripts,  and  the  toil  of 
compiling  a  catalogue  was  an  unfailing  pleasure 
to  one  who  united  in  himself  the  characters  of  a 
man  of  business  and  a  scholar.      In   his  shrewd 


In  1696  became  assistant-librarian  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  and  in 
1702  secretary  to  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge. 
In  1708  he  was  appointed  library  keeper  to  the  Earl  of  Oxford, 
in  1707  he  was  one  of  some  antiquarians  whose  meetings  were  the 
origin  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries. 
^  Harley  Papers^  ii.  i6. 


214  ROBERT   HARLEY 

eyes    and    rough    features    one    could    read    his 
character. 

In  1706  an  important  addition  was  made  to  the 
library  by  the  purchase  for  ;^500  of  the  valuable 
though  rather  too  voluminous  collection  which  had 
been  created  more  than  half  a  century  before  by 
that  untiring  antiquary  Sir  Simon  D'Ewes,  and  by 
the  year  17 15  that  portion  of  Harley's  library  which 
he  had  from  time  to  time  purchased,  and  exclusive 
of  the  many  gifts  which  he  had  received,  was  worth, 
according  to  Wanleys  computation,  jC4573'^     At 
this  time  a  large  part  of  the  collection  seems  to 
have  been  at  Wimpole,  the  house  of  Lord  Harley, 
of  which  he  had  become  the  owner  by  his  marriage 
with    the   daughter   and   heiress   of  the    Duke  of 
Newcastle.     Even  when  he  was  at  Oxford,  Edward 
Harley  was  entrusted  by  his  father  with  the  earlier 
transactions    for    the    acquisition    of    books    and 
manuscripts,^    whilst    during     the    latter    part    of 
Harley's  life  he  largely  relinquished  the  charge  of 
the   library   to   his    son,    for   whom    Wanley   was 
continually    adding    to    the    collection,    being    in 
constant  correspondence  with  Lord  Harley  in  regard 
to  its  arrangement  and  enlargement.    In  the  second 
Earl  of  Oxford  the  interest  of  his  father  in  collecting, 
at  once  intelligent  and  judicious,  degenerated  into 
a  foolish   and   an   extravagant  habit.      Inheriting 

^  Harley  Papers^  iii.  514. 
2  Harley  Papers^  iv.  41. 


DISPERSAL   OF   THE   LIBRARY     215 

Robert  Harley's  good-nature,  his  son  was  without 
his  judgment  and  his  business  capacity.  He 
collected  heedlessly  and  at  great  cost  books,  manu- 
scripts, and  curios.  At  the  same  time  he  had 
four  mansions  to  pay  for, — his  house  in  London, 
Brampton,  Wimpole,  and  Down  Hall, — and  so  it 
came  to  pass  that  he  died  in  1741  deeply  in  debt. 

The  dispersal  to  the  four  corners  of  the  earth 
of  a  collection,  whether  of  books  or  pictures,  the 
growth  of  which  a  man  has  watched  day  by  day 
and  year  by  year,  affords  admirable  opportunity  for 
the  moralist,  and  there  is  something  sad  in  seeing — 
common  sight  though  it  is — the  results  of  the  labour 
of  years  scattered  in  a  day.  Fortunately,  this  was 
not  wholly  the  fate  of  Harley's  collection.  Passing 
into  the  possession  of  Lady  Oxford  on  her  husband's 
death,  she  decided  to  dispose  of  it,  and  the  books 
were  in  1742  sold  by  her  to  Osborne  the  bookseller 
for  ;!f  13,000;  less,  it  is  said,  than  the  cost  of  the  bind- 
ing. For  Harley  liked  to  have  his  books  well  bound, 
and  he  enjoyed  seeing  his  shelves  filled  with  hand- 
some volumes.  H  is  favourite  cover  was  red  morocco, 
enriched  by  a  broad  border  of  gold  ;  the  material  he 
sometimes  supplied  himself  But  the  indulgence  of 
this  expensive  taste  added  greatly  to  the  cost  of  the 
library,  even  though  it  was  under  the  charge  of 
Wanley,  who  did  not  hesitate  to  bargain  with  the 
binders.  The  books  were  gradually  dispersed  ; 
but  the  manuscripts  for  some  years  remained  in  the 


216  ROBERT   HARLEY 

possession  of  Lady  Oxford,  until  in  1753  they  were 
bought  from  her  for  ;^i  0,000,  by  the  trustees  who 
were  nominated  and  empowered  by  Parliament  to 
buy  the  collection  of  Sir  Hans  Sloane^  and  the 
Harleian  Manuscripts  and  to  erect  for  them  **one 
general  repository."  These  two  libraries  and  the 
Cottonian  Manuscripts,  acquired  in  1 700  and  trans- 
ferred to  the  new  trustees  in  1753,  formed  the 
nucleus  for  that  national  library  which  has  unceas- 
ingly increased,  and  which  in  its  inception  was  based 
not  a  little  on  the  manuscripts  of  which  many  were 
collected  by  Robert  Harley  as  the  recreation  of  an 
anxious  and  laborious  public  life. 

Harley 's  great  collection  and  the  final  home  of 
a  large  part  of  it  have  resulted  in  preserving  his 
name  in  the  memory  of  many  generations  of  the 
English-speaking  race,  and  have  given  him  a  vague 
posthumous  fame  as  a  patron  and  a  friend  of  men 
of  letters.  This,  though  not  undeserved,  may  easily 
be  exaggerated  ;  for  though  a  lifelong  collector,  the 
period  during  which  he  was  the  centre  of  a  famous 
literary  society  was  short.  Without  also  denying 
Harley's  intelligent  interest  in  literature,  it  was 
mainly  owing  to  his  political  position  that  he  was 
brought  in  contact  with  a  brilliant  group  of  remark- 
able men,  who  found  in  politics  a  livelihood  and  in 
politicians  patrons,  men  wholly  different  from  the 
antiquarians  and  the  collectors,  who  were  constantly 

^  26  George  11.  c.  22. 


THE   TORY   MEN   OF   LETTERS     217 

in  communication  with  him.  Harley's  connection 
with  De  Foe,  as  has  been  told  in  previous  pages, 
was  purely  political,  but  both  Prior  and  Swift  from 
political  assistants  became  intimate  personal  friends, 
and  have  added  much  to  the  importance  of  Harley's 
life.  The  contrast  of  the  characters  of  Swift  and 
Harley  gives  not  a  little  piquancy  to  their  associa- 
tion ;  for  Swift  was  as  egotistical  as  Rousseau, 
restless,  irritable,  and  susceptible,  shaken  by  gusts 
of  anger  and  emotion  at  which  Harley  must  often 
have  smiled  as  he  answered  him  in  his  slow, 
hesitating  way,  pondering  the  effect  of  Swift's 
suggestions  on  the  politicians  whose  divergent 
views  he  had  so  constantly  to  reconcile.  It  was 
characteristic  of  Harley's  common  good-nature  to 
offer  Swift,  in  a  moment  of  forgetfulness,  fifty 
pounds  as  if  he  were  De  Foe  or  Mrs.  Manley.  It 
was  like  Swift  to  resent  the  well-meant  kindness 
of  his  patron,  and  to  refuse  to  go  near  his  house 
till  Harley  had  apologised  for  offering  a  gift  which 
had  never  been  asked.  But  Harley  was  the  last 
man  to  be  vexed  at  this  show  of  independence, 
which  must  have  amused  him  ;  for  no  one  knew 
better  than  he  how  dependent  the  best  party 
publicists  were  on  high  officials. 

The  able  writers  who  were  serving  the  Tory 
party  were  eager  for  a  reward  in  some  form  or 
other,  and  when  they  received  it  in  the  shape  of 
an  appointment  they  generally  regarded  it  as  less 


218  ROBERT   HARTLEY 

than  they  deserved,  and  a  demand  for  money  some- 
times followed. 

"I'm  no  more  to  converse  with  the  swains, 
But  go  where  fine  people  resort ; 
One  can  live  without  money  on  plains, 
But  never  without  it  at  Court. 

If  when  with  the  swains  I  did  gambol, 

I  arrayed  me  in  silver  and  blue ; 
When  abroad  and  in  Courts  I  shall  ramble,  , 

Pray,  my  Lord,  how  much  money  will  do?" 

There  are  many  ways  of  begging,  and  one  could 
not  well  be  asked  more  agreeably  than  in  these 
lines,  in  which  Gay,  when  he  was  appointed 
through  Harley  s  good  offices  secretary  to  Lord 
Clarendon's  mission  to  Hanover  (1714),  suggested 
to  the  Lord  Treasurer  that  a  present  would  at  the 
moment  be  very  acceptable.^ 

De  Foe  did  not  mince  matters  in  this  fashion ; 
he  expected  to  be  paid,  and  when  the  money  did 
not  come  promptly,  he  asked  for  it.  He  would  have 
taken  the  fifty  pounds  which  Swift  refused  without 
ado,  and  we  like  him  all  the  better  for  his  sincerity. 

*  Gay's  request  for  money  so  pleasantly  placed  before  the  Lord 
Treasurer  was  evidently  without  effect,  for  among  the  Welbeck 
papers  is  the  following  note  from  Gay:  "1714,  June  10. — Your 
Lordship's  continued  goodness  towards  me  makes  me  presume  to 
remind  you  of  your  shepherd's  petition.  My  Lord  Clarendon  tells 
me  he  sends  his  things  down  the  water  to-morrow  and  embarks  on 
Saturday.  The  time  to  provide  myself  is  very  short,  but  I  submit 
myself  entirely  to  your  Lordship's  will  and  pleasure,  and  now  attend 
your  commands." — Harley  Papers^  iii.  457. 


JOHN    GA^■ 

From  an  nnjittished  sketch  by  Sir  Godfrey  Knelier  in  i/u  A'ational  Portrait  Gallery 


THE   PATRON  219 

For  Harley  knew  quite  well  that  behind  this 
outward  pride  of  Swift's  existed  the  aesire  for  a 
reward  greater  than  a  sum  of  money.  He  was 
well  aware,  too,  how  in  the  age  of  Anne  literary 
success  depended  not  a  little  on  the  patronage  of 
a  nobleman.  It  was  as  a  patron  that  Harley  was 
first  interested  in  Pope.  At  his  suggestion  and 
that  of  the  Duke  of  Shrewsbury,  Pope  versified 
the  Satires  of  Donne,  a  fact  which  years  after  its 
occurrence  he  was  careful  to  state ;  for  no  writer 
ever  had  a  more  business-like  mind.  "  Pardon 
me,"  he  once  wrote  to  Gay,  *'if  I  add  a  word  of 
advice  in  the  poetical  way,"  and  that  advice  was — 
"  write  something  on  the  king  or  prince  or  princess." 
And  thus,  while  it  pleased  statesmen  to  believe 
that  they  could  suggest  themes  to  an  author,  the 
belief  was  still  more  agreeable  to  the  writer,  since 
it  enlisted  in  his  favour  the  influence  of  powerful 
patrons.  It  was  a  practice  which,  though  it  seemed 
derogatory  to  the  self-respect  of  a  man  of  letters,  was 
well  understood  to  be  simply  a  form  of  advertise- 
ment. No  one  took  it  very  seriously,  and  its  purpose 
was  achieved  when  it  made  known  the  work  of  an 
author  to  a  rather  limited  public.  The  news-letter, 
the  stage  coach,  and  the  patron  were  each  of 
them  necessary  in  the  existing  state  of  society. 

Harley  had  a  kindly  temperament,  and  was 
without  either  pride  or  egotism.  Nothing  surprised 
Swift  more  than  that  at  the  very  beginning  of  their 


220  ROBERT   HARLEY 

connection  Harley  should  treat  him  like  an  old 
friend.  The  highest  honours  did  not  change  his 
manner,  and  when  Swift  attended  a  levde  soon 
after  Harley  became  Lord  Treasurer  in  1711,  **he 
whispered  me,"  he  writes  in  his  Journal  to  Stella^ 
"a  jest  or  two,  and  bade  me  come  to  dinner." 

To  appreciate  the  society  of  the  great  writers 
who  were  gathered  in  London  at  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  it  was  not  necessary  either 
to  be  an  author  or  a  man  gifted  with  literary  per- 
ception ;  no  intelligent  person  with  a  knowledge  of 
the  world  could  fail  to  enjoy  the  companionship  of 
the  men  who  were  grouped  around  the  Lord  Trea- 
surer. Yet  it  is  remarkable  that  this  union,  which 
is  so  famous,  lasted,  so  far  as  Harley  is  concerned, 
for  so  short  a  time.  De  Foe,  whose  connection 
with  him  began,  as  we  have  told,  in  1703,  took  no 
part  in  the  literary  gatherings  in  London.  Swift 
did  not  know  Harley  before  his  introduction  in 
1 7 10,  and  Swift  and  Dr.  Arbuthnot,^  who  was  the 
life  and  soul  of  the  company,  did  not  meet  till  171 1. 

^  John  Arbuthnot,  1667- 1735.  Born  at  Arbuthnot, Kincardineshire. 
In  1689  took  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  at  St.  Andrews.  He 
came  to  London  and  gave  lessons  in  mathematics  ;  from  1697-1700 
published  various  scientific  works.  In  1704  Arbuthnot  was  elected 
Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  in  1705  Physician  Extraordinary  to 
the  Queen,  and  in  17 10  was  admitted  a  Fellow  of  the  College  of 
Physicians.  In  17 12  he  published  Law  is  a  Bottomless  Pit^  or 
the  History  of  John  Bull.  He  was  the  main  if  not  the  exclusive 
author  of  the  Memoirs  of  Martinus  Scriblerus,  first  published  in  an 
edition  of  Pope's  Works  in  1714.  In  his  last  years  he  wrote  more 
scientific  and  medical  works. 


DR.   ARBUTHNOT  221 

No  doubt  Harley  and  Arbuthnot  had  been  ac- 
quainted before  this  year,  for  on  30th  October 
1705,  Arbuthnot  had  become  Physician  Extra- 
ordinary to  the  Queen.  Though  eminent  in  his 
profession,  he  doubtless  owed  his  appointment  not 
a  Httle  to  his  learning,  humour,  and  agreeable 
character. 

"Preserve  him  cheerful,  social,  and  serene, 
And  just  as  rich  as  when  he  served  a  Queen," 

wrote  Pope  in  a  couplet  admirably  descriptive  of 
this  excellent  man  and  of  the  qualities  which 
tended  to  his  advancement  at  Court.  A  distin- 
guished physician,  a  scientific  writer,  and  a  wit  who 
could  produce  so  permanent  a  pamphlet  as  the 
History  of  John  Bull,  which  gave  to  the  Englishman 
a  sobriquet  which  has  become  perpetual,  he  was 
valued  by  his  friends  as  the  most  delightful  of 
companions.  But  besides  Swift  and  Arbuthnot, 
there  were  associated  Gay,^  then  quite  young, 
and  but  just  beginning  his  odd  life  of  mingled 
failure  and  success ;  and  Parnell,^  who  was  now  a 
protege   of  Swift's,  and  whom   he   introduced   to 

^  John  Gay,  1 688-1 732.  Born  at  Barnstaple  and  educated  at  its 
Grammar  School.  In  1708  he  published  his  first  poem,  "Wine"  ;  in 
1714,  "The  Fair  and  the  Shepherd's  Week."  In  the  same  year  he 
became  secretary  to  Lord  Clarendon,  the  Envoy  to  the  Court  of 
Hanover,  whose  mission  was  ended  by  the  death  of  the  Queen.  In 
1 7 16  "Trivia"  was  published,  in  1727  "The  Fables,"  and  in  1728 
the  famous  "  Beggars'  Opera." 

2  Thomas  Parnell,  1679-17 18.  Born  in  Dublin,  he  was  educated 
at  Trinity  College,  ordained  in  1700,  and  held  various  preferments. 
He  inherited  an  estate  in  Armagh  from  his  mother.    He  first  visited 


222  ROBERT   HARLEY 

Harley  in  17 12.  Pope,  too,  and  Prior,  with  an 
acknowledged  reputation  as  a  diplomatist  and  a 
poet,  were  of  the  company.  Just  when  Harley 
reached  the  height  of  his  power  in  171 1,  the  in- 
dividual intercourse  of  these  kindred  spirits  became 
closer,  and  occasional  meetings  of  the  friends  more 
frequent,  and  from  that  tendency  to  form  political 
and  social  organisations  which  was  to  develop  into 
the  modern  club,  there  grew  an  organised  company. 
In  June  171 1  a  club  or  society  was  formed,  Tory 
in  its  politics,  but  not  established  directly  for  party 
purposes,  of  which  the  inner  circle,  with  a  mixture 
of  pleasantry  and  affection,  called  each  other  brother.^ 
Its  founder  was  Bolingbroke,  and,  strangely  enough, 
Harley  was  not  elected  to  this  company.  "It 
seems,"  says  Swift  in  his  Journal  {21st  June  1711), 
**  in  my  absence  they  had  elected  a  club  and  made 
me  one,  and  we  made  some  laws  to-day  which  I 
am  to  digest  and  add  to  against  next  meeting. 
Our  meetings  are  to  be  every  Tuesday  :  we  are 
yet  but  twelve  :  Lord  Keeper  and  Lord  Treasurer 
were  proposed  :  but  I  was  against  them  and  so 
was  Mr.  Secretary, ^  though  their  sons  are  of  it, 
and  so  they  are  excluded.  The  end  of  our  club 
is   to  advance  conversation  and  friendship  and  to 

London  in  1706.  The  first  collected  edition  of  his  poems  was  pub- 
lished in  1721. 

^  The  society  has  consequently  become  known  as  the  Brothers' 
Club. 

2  Bolingbroke. 


THE   BROTHERS'   CLUB  223 

reward  deserving  persons  with  our  interest  and 
recommendation.  We  take  in  none  but  men  of 
wit  or  men  of  interest :  and  if  we  go  on  as  we 
began,  no  other  club  in  this  town  will  be  worth 
talking  of."  Bolingbroke  described  it  in  similar 
terms:  *'The  improvement  of  friendship  and  the 
encouragement  of  letters  are  to  be  the  two  great 
ends  of  our  society."^  It  met  once  a  week,  usually 
at  some  tavern.  **  Society  day,"  notes  Swift  on 
27th  March  171 2,  "you  know  that,  I  suppose. 
Dr.  Arbuthnot  was  President.  His  dinner  was 
dressed  in  the  Queen's  kitchen,  and  was  mighty 
fine.  We  ate  at  Ozindas  Chocolate  House  just 
by  St.  James'.  We  were  never  merrier  nor  better 
company,  and  did  not  part  till  after  eleven  ...  I 
met  Lord  Treasurer  to-day  at  Lady  Masham's. 
He  would  fain  have  carried  me  home  to  dinner. 
No,  no.  What !  upon  a  society  day !  "  Sometimes 
the  members  joined  in  a  humbler  repast  at 
Arbuthnot's  rooms  or  at  Prior's  house,  to  which 
Harley  was  invited — a  fact  suggestive  of  his  tastes — 

"  Our  weekly  friends  to-morrow  meet. 
At  Matthew's  palace,  in  Duke  Street, 
To  try,  for  once,  if  they  can  dine 
On  bacon,  ham,  and  mutton  chine. 
If,  weary'd  with  the  great  affairs 
Which  Britain  trusts  to  Harley's  cares, 
Thou,  humble  statesman,  may'st  descend 
Thy  mind  one  moment  to  unbend, 

^  Bolingbroke  to  the  Earl  of  Orrery,  I2th  June  171 1. — Boling- 
broke^s  Corresp,,  edited  by  Parke. 


224  ROBERT   HARLEY 

To  see  thy  servant  from  his  soul 
Crown  with  thy  health  the  sprightly  bowl ; 
Among  the  guests  which  e'er  my  house 
Received,  it  never  can  produce 
Of  honour  a  more  glorious  proof, 
Though  Dorset  us'd  to  bless  the  roof." 

Such  was  Prior's  invitation  to  Harley  to  a  dinner 
of  the  club,  which  gradually  increased  in  numbers. 
Its  repasts,  too,  became  more  costly.  *'  Our  society 
met  to-day  "  (7th  February  1 7 1 2) ;  "we  have  lessened 
our  dinners,  which  were  grown  so  extravagant  that 
Lord  Treasurer  and  everybody  else  cried  shame." 
Harley  was  economical  in  private  as  in  public 
matters,  and  we  see  his  judicious  influence  here ; 
but  it  could  not  avail  much,  for  Ormond,  Bathurst, 
and  other  noblemen  who  belonged  to  the  club  were 
not  the  men  to  dine  frugally.  It  was  enjoyable 
enough  to  listen  to  Swift  and  Prior  demolish  the 
Whigs  over  the  dinner-table,  or  to  hear  Swift  read 
his  coming  publications  at  dessert,  but  the  evening 
was  pleasanter  when  the  dishes  and  the  wine  were 
as  excellent  as  the  company.  Thus  by  the  end  of  the 
year  the  club  had  grown  too  fashionable  and  too 
costly  for  some  of  its  founders,  and  Swift  was  tired 
of  it.  *' I  propose  (i8th  December)  our  meetings 
should  be  once  a  fortnight,  for  between  you  and 
me  we  do  no  good.  It  cost  me  nineteen  shillings 
to-day  for  my  club  dinner;  I  don't  like  it."  But 
the  men  of  letters  who  were  members  of  it  were  as 
close  friends  as  ever — vivacity  and  wit  and  high 


THE   SCRIBLERUS   CLUB  225 

spirits  were  their  natural  gifts,  and  under  the  in- 
fluence of  this  union  of  qualities  there  grew  that 
unique  literary  and  social  companionship  which 
has  become  famous  as  the  Scriblerus  Club.  Yet 
stronger  than  the  bond  of  intellectual  was  that  of 
personal  sympathy,  appreciation  of  and  pleasure  in 
the  attractive  traits  by  which  each  friend  was  char- 
acterised— kindness,  generosity,  and  open-hearted- 
ness.  Common  intellectual  tastes  and  a  common 
political  interest  would  never  alone  have  produced 
that  true  and  kindly  union  which  was  the  basis  of 
the  Scriblerus  Club.  And  it  certainly  was  not  be- 
cause of  his  interest  in  letters,  or  his  power  as  head 
of  the  Tory  party,  that  Harley  was  admitted  to  its 
meetings.  For  the  society  to  which  the  Brothers' 
Club,  as  it  has  been  called,  with  its  singular  union 
of  men  of  letters  and  powerful  noblemen,  had  given 
place  was  at  once  more  intimate,  more  personal,  and 
less  formal,  one  to  which  a  man  was  not  elected 
unless  he  were  liked.  "  Men  of  interest,"  who  were 
to  form  one  element  in  the  larger  club,  were  not 
wanted  at  its  gatherings,  but  men  of  common 
sympathies ;  and  it  was  because  Harley  possessed 
some  of  those  agreeable  qualities  which  tend  to 
good  fellowship — an  equable  and  a  cheerful  temper, 
and  a  simple  and  kindly  nature — that  he  became  a 
friend  of  the  writers  with  whom  he  mingled  on  equal 
terms,  and  who  invited  the  Lord  Treasurer  to  join 
them  in  their  meetings  without  ceremony,  and  in 
15 


226  ROBERT    HARLEY 

simple  good  comradeship,  welcoming  him  not  as 
their  political  chief,  but  as  a  pleasant  and  appreci- 
ative companion. 

"Then  come  and  take  part  in 
The  Memoirs  of  Martin, 
Lay  by  your  white  staff  and  grey  habit ; 
For  trust  us,  friend  Mortimer, 
Should  you  Hve  years  forty  more, 
Hoc  olitn  mefninisse  Juvabit." 

Such  is  the  concluding  stanza  of  the  lines  sent  to 
Harley  and  signed  **  by  order  of  ye  Club  "  by  Pope, 
Gay,  Swift,  Arbuthnot,  and  Parnell,  bidding  him  to 
their  gatherings.^ 

The  club  itself  was  short-lived.  We  hear  of  it 
first  in  1 7 14,  and  it  ceased  on  Harley 's  fall  in  the 
same  year.  The  object  of  those  members  who 
were  at  once  men  of  letters  and  intimate  friends 
was  to  write  a  series  of  satires  on  pedantry  and 
pretended  learning.  Some  of  this  congenial  task 
was  accomplished,  the  principal  result  being  the 
Memoirs  of  Scriblerus,  of  which  the  first  book  only 
was  completed.  To  **  ridicule  all  the  false  taste  in 
learning,  under  the  character  of  a  man  of  capacity 
enough  that  had  dropped  into  every  art  and  science 
but  injudiciously  in  each,"  was  Pope's  description 
of  these  memoirs.  Probably  written  almost  entirely 
by  Arbuthnot,  they  were  not  published  until  1741, 
and  then  among  Pope's  Works,  The  **Art  of 
Sinking  in  Poetry,"  and  "Straddling  versus  Stiles," 
^  Aitken's  Life  of  Arbuthnot^  from  the  Longleat  MSS.,  p.  56. 


THE   SCRIBLERUS  CLUB  227 

both  in  the  same  vein  as  the  Memoirs,  were  origin- 
ally published  among  Miscellanies  in  Prose  and 
Verse  by  Pope  and  Swift  in  1727,  whilst  "An 
Essay  of  the  Learned  Martinus  Scriblerus  con- 
cerning the  Origin  of  Sciences  "  appeared  in  another 
volume  of  the  same  work  in  1732.  In  these  satires, 
Pope,  Swift,  and  Arbuthnot,  as  well  as  in  some 
measure  Parnell  and  Gay,  had  a  hand.  Harley 
may  have  given  some  hints,  for,  wrote  Gay  to 
Swift  in  June  17 14,  ''we  had  the  honour  of  the 
Treasurer's  company  last  Saturday,  when  we  sat 
upon  Scriblerus."^  This  was  the  most  critical  time 
in  Harley's  career,  and  it  must  have  been  with  a 
feeling  of  no  little  relief  that  he  spent  an  evening 
with  these  men  of  letters — at  once  sociable,  witty, 
and  irresponsible,  talking  of  their  friends  and  of  their 
literary  projects,  where  he  could  forget  for  the  hour 
the  jealousies,  the  intrigues,  and  the  ambitions  of 
which  the  Cabinet  of  the  Queen  was  the  centre. 

From  this  literary  group,  united  not  only  by 
intellectual  but  by  the  closest  personal  sympathies, 
Harley  disappeared  with  dramatic  rapidity,  and 
never  rejoined  it,  though  in  his  occasional  visits 
to  London  he  met  some  of  his  old  friends.  "  The 
Dragon,"  wrote  Arbuthnot  to  Swift  in  1718, 
using  the  sobriquet  which  the  Dean  had  given  to 
Harley,  because,  as  he  said,  *'  he  was  the  mildest 
Minister  that  ever  served  a  prince,"  **is  just  as  he 

^  June  8th,  17 14.    Aitken's  Life  of  Arbuthnot,  p.  60. 


228  ROBERT  HARLEY 

was,  only  all  his  old  habits  ten  times  stronger  upon 
him   than   ever."^      Swift,    too,    departed   from   it 
when  he  finally  returned   to  exile  in    Ireland,  to 
be  welcomed  back  only  for  a  short  time  in  1727, 
and  Pope  and  Gay  and  Arbuthnot  in  after  years 
were  left  to  represent  the  brilliant  company  which 
the  political  cataclysm   of   1714  permanently  dis- 
persed.    In  September  of  that  eventful  year  Parnell 
and  Pope  wrote  to  Arbuthnot  a  joint  letter  which 
is  a  farewell  to  the  club :  **  It  is  a  pleasure  to  us 
to   recollect   the   satisfaction  we  enjoyed  in   your 
company,  when  we  used  to  meet  the   Dean  and 
Gay  with  you  ;  and  Greatness  ^  itself  condescended 
to  look  in  at  the  door  to  us.     Then  it  was  the 
immortal   Scriblerus  smiled  upon  our  endeavours, 
who   now   hangs   his   head    in   an  obscure  corner 
pining    for    his   friends   that   are    scattering    over 
the  face  of  the  earth."  ^     By  Harley  these  gather- 
ings were  remembered  with  satisfaction  long  after 
those  who  formed  them  were  dispersed  by  various 
destinies.     "  I  look  back  indeed,"  he  wrote  to  Pope 
in  a  dignified  and  friendly  reply  to  the  letter  with 
which  in  1721   was  sent  the  famous  dedication  to 
Harley  prefixed  to  the  edition  of  Parnell's  Poems, 
**  I  look  back  to  those  evenings   I   have  usefully 
and  pleasantly  spent  with  Mr.   Pope,  Mr.  Parnell, 
Dean  Swift,  the  Doctor,  etc."* 

^  Aitken's  Life  of  Arbuthnot^  p.  92.         ^  Harley. 

3  Aitken's  Arbuthnot ^  p.  79.  *  Pope's  Works ^  viii.  189. 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  SOCIETY    229 

Not  one  of  Harley's  memories,  as  in  his  peaceful 
Herefordshire  home  he  surveyed  the  critical  and 
anxious  years  of  his  public  life,  can  have  been  so 
agreeable  as  that  of  the  hours  which  he  passed  in 
Arbuthnot's  rooms  in  St.  James'  Palace,  with  the 
men  of  letters  who  are  inseparably  identified  with 
the  age  of  Anne,  and  among  whom  the  harassed 
statesman  for  a  short  time  could  forget  his  political 
anxieties. 

But  neither   the   Brothers'  nor   the  Scriblerus 
Club    can    be    regarded    as    isolated   groups,    for 
Addison  and  Steele  were  the  comrades  of  Wharton 
and  Sunderland,  as  Pope,  Swift,  and  Gay  were  of 
Harley  and  Bolingbroke.     The  club  formed  part  of 
a  unique  society  in  which  Harley  was  a  conspicuous 
figure,  and  which  was  as  remarkable  for  its  sense  of 
equality  as  for  its  ease  and  brilliancy.     It  retained 
some  of  the  brightest  characteristics  of  the  Restora- 
tion,  and  it  had  not  yet  been   overcome  by  the 
dulness  of  the  Court  of  the  four  Georges.     The 
easy  sociability  of  the    Lord    Treasurer's   weekly 
political   dinners   on    Saturday  afternoons  was   as 
agreeable  as  the  more  intimate  causeries  in  Lady 
Masham's  apartments,  and  the  universal  apprecia- 
tion of  letters  broke  down  social  barriers.     When 
Swift  was   at   Court,  he   tells  Stella,   one  day  in 
December  (171 1),  as  the  Tories  were  rejoicing  at 
Harley's  unhoped-for  victory  over  the  Whigs,  *'the 
Duchess  of  Shrewsbury  came  running  up  to  me, 


230  ROBERT   HARLEY 

and  clapped  her  fan  up  to  hide  us  from  the 
company,  and  we  gave  one  another  joy  of  this 
change."  In  all  that  invaluable  letter -diary  of 
Swift's  we  have  no  more  vivid  and  suggestive 
picture  than  this  :  the  poor  Irish  parson — for  that  is 
what  he  was — and  the  Duchess  with  their  heads 
together  behind  the  fluttering  fan,  rejoicing  over 
the  defeat  of  their  political  enemies.  Literature 
and  politics,  high  society,  personal  ambition  and 
personal  enmity,  are  personified  in  a  moment,  in  a 
corner  of  the  Court,  that  Court  which  was  the 
scene  of  the  triumphs  and  of  the  downfall  of 
Harley. 

In  concluding  this  review  of  the  connection 
between  Harley  and  his  literary  friends,  it  is  scarcely 
needful  to  point  out  that  the  association  of  literature 
with  politics,  and  so  of  men  of  letters  with  the  Court, 
was  not  a  mere  accidental  social  phenomenon,  but  a 
noticeable  phase  in  the  history  of  English  letters, 
a  result  of  that  enlargement  of  national  life,  and  that 
growth  of  the  modern  spirit  which  showed  itself  so 
vividly  both  in  politics  and  commerce  during  the 
first  years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when,  after 
passing  through  the  two  unexampled  crises  of  the 
Rebellion  and  the  Revolution,  and  after  dominat- 
ing the  Grand  Alliance  against  France  in  a  war 
which  raged  from  the  Scheld  to  the  Danube,  the 
nation  was  ripe  for  the  commencement  of  a  new 
epoch  of  peaceable  development.     The  widespread 


LITERATURE   AND   POLITICS     231 

interest  which  was  felt  from  one  end  of  England 
to  the  other  in  the  politics  of  the  hour,  gave, 
when  they  discussed  them,  the  largest  scope  to 
the  ablest  writers  of  the  day,  the  quickest  and 
surest  rewards,  the  most  extensive  public  applause. 
Men  of  letters  were  never  before  or  since  so  closely 
concerned  with  public  affairs,  not  in  a  special 
capacity,  as  must  always  happen  from  time  to  time, 
and  as  occurred  in  the  secretaryship  of  Addison, 
but  as  users  of  the  pen.  The  open  connection  in 
the  age  of  Anne  between  statesmen  and  writers, 
whether  Whigs  or  Tories,  was  an  official  and  public 
recognition  of  the  importance  of  their  work  and 
of  its  increasing  effect  on  English  opinion — a  re- 
cognition which,  as  it  became  more  general,  became 
the  appreciation  of  journalism  as  a  great  factor  in 
national  life,  while  the  personalities  of  the  men  who 
did  the  work  were  lost  in  the  force  which  their 
celebrated  predecessors  had  created.  This  out- 
burst of  literary  activity  in  the  form  which  has  now 
become  so  vast  and  so  common,  is  the  more  striking 
since  it  was  not  only  sudden  in  its  advent,  but  was 
singularly  brilliant.  It  produced  publications  which, 
though  ephemeral  in  intention,  have  long  outlived 
their  authors,  and  were  powerful  without  visible 
effort,  and  as  effective  in  purpose  as  they  were 
attractive  in  style,  and  have  caused  the  work  of 
Swift  and  Addison,  of  Steele  and — though  he  was 
not  of  the  Court  group,  and  an  assistant,  not  a  friend, 


232  ROBERT  HARLEY 

of  Harley  —  it  must  be  added,  of  De  Foe,  to 
become  English  classics.  The  remarkable  per- 
ception which  Harley  possessed  of  the  trend  of 
popular  feeling,  his  natural  love  of  books,  his 
kindly  temperament,  and  his  position  as  chief  of 
the  Administration,  caused  him  to  become  the 
central  figure  round  which  were  gathered  in  vary- 
ing degrees  of  relationship  or  intimacy  the  men  of 
letters  who  were  at  work  for  the  Tory  party.  In 
the  interest  which  is  felt  in  the  personal  aspect  of 
these  associations,  one  is  inclined  to  overlook  their 
importance  as  incidents  in  the  growth  of  national 
life. 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX   I 

SWIFT'S  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF 
OXFORD  1 

The  Earl  of  Oxford  is  a  person  of  as  much  virtue  as  can 
possibly  consist  with  the  love  of  power;  and  his  love  of 
power  is  no  greater  than  what  is  common  to  men  of  his 
superior  capacities ;  neither  did  any  man  ever  appear 
to  value  it  less  after  he  had  obtained  it,  or  exert  it  with 
more  moderation.  He  is  the  only  instance  that  ever  fell 
within  my  memory  or  observation,  of  a  person  passing 
from  a  private  life,  through  the  several  stages  of  greatness, 
without  any  perceivable  impression  upon  his  temper  or 
behaviour.  As  his  own  birth  was  illustrious,  being 
descended  from  the  heirs  general  of  the  Veres  and  the 
Mortimers,  so  he  seemed  to  value  that  accidental  advantage 
in  himself  and  others  more  than  it  could  pretend  to  deserve. 
He  abounded  in  good  nature  and  good  humour ;  although 
subject  to  passion,  as  I  have  heard  it  affirmed  by  others, 
and  owned  by  himself ;  which,  however,  he  kept  under  the 
strictest  government,  till  toward  the  end  of  his  ministry, 
when  he  began  to  grow  soured,  and  to  suspect  his  friends ; 
and,  perhaps,  thought  it  not  worth  his  pains  to  manage 

^  From  an  Inquiry  into  the  Behaviour  of  the  Queen's  Last  Ministry  with 

relation  to  their  quarrels  among  themselves  and  the  design  charged  upon 

them  of  altering  the  succession  to  the  Crown.— Swift's  WorkSy  v.  265. 
\  283 


234  APPENDIX  I 

any  longer.  He  was  a  great  favourer  of  men  of  wit  and 
learning,  particularly  the  former  ;  whom  he  caressed  with- 
out distinction  of  party,  and  could  not  endure  to  think 
that  any  of  them  should  be  his  enemies ;  and  it  was  his 
good  fortune  that  none  of  them  ever  appeared  to  be  so ; 
at  least  if  one  may  judge  by  the  libels  and  pamphlets 
published  against  him,  which  he  frequently  read,  by  way 
of  amusement,  with  a  most  unaffected  indifference  :  neither 
do  I  remember  ever  to  have  endangered  his  good  opinion 
so  much  as  by  appearing  uneasy  when  the  dealers  in  that 
kind  of  writing  first  began  to  pour  out  their  scurrilities 
against  me ;  which  he  thought  was  a  weakness  altogether 
inexcusable  in  a  man  of  virtue  and  liberal  education.  He 
had  the  greatest  variety  of  knowledge  that  I  have 
anywhere  met  with ;  was  a  perfect  master  of  the  learned 
languages,  and  well  skilled  in  divinity.  He  had  a 
prodigious  memory  and  a  most  exact  judgment.  In 
drawing  up  any  state  paper,  no  man  had  more  proper 
thoughts,  or  put  them  in  so  strong  and  clear  a  light. 
Although  his  style  were  not  always  correct, — which, 
however,  he  knew  how  to  mend, — yet  often,  to  save  time, 
he  would  leave  the  smaller  alterations  to  others.  I  have 
heard  that  he  spoke  but  seldom  in  Parliament,  and  then 
rather  with  art  than  eloquence :  but  no  man  equalled  him 
in  the  knowledge  of  our  constitution;  the  reputation 
whereof  made  him  be  chosen  Speaker  to  three  successive 
Parliaments  ;  which  office,  I  have  often  heard  his  enemies 
allow  him  to  have  executed  with  universal  applause.  His 
sagacity  was  such,  that  I  could  produce  very  amazing 
instances  of  it,  if  they  were  not  unseasonable.  In  all 
difficulties,  he  immediately  found  the  true  point  that  was 
to  be  pursued,  and  adhered  to  it ;  and  one  or  two  others  in 
the  Ministry  have  confessed  very  often  to  me,  that,  after 
having  condemned  his  opinion,  they  found  him  in  the  right 
and  themselves  in  the  wrong.     He  was  utterly  a  stranger 


APPENDIX   I  235 

to  fear ;  and  consequently  had  a  presence  of  mind  upon 
all  emergencies.  His  liberality  and  contempt  of  money 
were  such  that  he  almost  ruined  his  estate  while  he  was  in 
employment;  yet  his  avarice  for  the  public  was  so  great 
that  it  neither  consisted  with  the  present  corruptions  of  the 
age  nor  the  circumstances  of  the  time.  He  was  seldom 
mistaken  in  his  judgment  of  men,  and  therefore  not  apt  to 
change  a  good  or  ill  opinion  by  the  representation  of 
others,  except  toward  the  end  of  his  Ministry.  He  was 
affable  and  courteous,  extremely  easy  and  agreeable  in 
conversation,  and  altogether  disengaged ;  regular  in  his 
life,  with  great  appearance  of  piety ;  nor  ever  guilty  of  any 
expressions  that  could  possibly  tend  to  what  was  indecent 
or  profane.  His  imperfections  were  at  least  as  obvious, 
although  not  so  numerous,  as  his  virtues.  He  had  an  air 
of  secrecy  in  his  manner  and  countenance,  by  no  means 
proper  for  a  great  Minister,  because  it  warns  all  men  to 
prepare  against  it.  He  often  gave  no  answer  at  all,  and 
very  seldom  a  direct  one  :  and  I  rather  blame  this  reserved- 
ness  of  temper,  because  I  have  known  a  very  different 
practice  succeed  much  better ;  of  which,  among  others,  the 
late  Earl  of  Sunderland,  and  the  present  Lord  Somers, 
persons  of  great  abilities,  are  remarkable  instances ;  who 
used  to  talk  in  so  frank  a  manner  that  they  seemed  to 
discover  the  bottom  of  their  hearts,  and  by  that  appearance 
of  confidence  would  easily  unlock  the  breasts  of  others. 
But  the  Earl  of  Oxford  pleads,  in  excuse  of  this  charge, 
that  he  has  seldom  or  never  communicated  anything  which 
was  of  importance  to  be  concealed,  wherein  he  has  not 
been  deceived  by  the  vanity,  treachery,  or  indiscretion  of 
those  he  discovered  it  to.  Another  of  his  imperfections, 
universally  known  and  complained  of,  was  procrastination 
or  delay :  which  was,  doubtless,  natural  to  him,  although 
he  often  bore  the  blame  without  the  guilt,  and  when  the 
remedy  was  not  in  his  power ;  for  never  were  prince  and 


236  APPENDIX   II 

Minister  better  matched  than  his  sovereign  and  he  upon 
that  article ;  and  therefore,  in  the  disposal  of  employments, 
wherein  the  Queen  was  very  absolute,  a  year  would  often 
pass  before  they  could  come  to  a  determination.  I 
remember  he  was  likewise  heavily  charged  with  the 
common  court  vice,  of  promising  very  liberally  and  seldom 
performing  ;  of  which,  although  I  cannot  altogether  acquit 
him,  yet  I  am  confident  his  intentions  were  generally 
better  than  his  disappointed  solicitors  would  believe.  It 
may  be  likewise  said  of  him  that  he  certainly  did  not 
value,  or  did  not  understand,  the  art  of  acquiring  friends  ; 
having  made  very  few  during  the  time  of  his  power,  and 
contracted  a  great  number  of  enemies.  Some  of  us  used 
to  observe,  that  those  whom  he  talked  well  of,  or  suffered 
to  be  often  near  him,  were  not  in  a  situation  of  much 
advantage ;  and  that  his  mentioning  others  with  contempt 
or  dislike  was  no  hindrance  at  all  to  their  preferment.  I 
have  dwelt  the  longer  upon  this  great  man's  character, 
because  I  have  observed  it  so  often  mistaken  by  the  wise 
reasoners  of  both  parties  ;  besides,  having  had  the  honour, 
for  almost  four  years,  of  a  nearer  acquaintance  with  him 
than  usually  happens  to  men  of  my  level,  and  this  without 
the  least  mercenary  obligation,  I  thought  it  lay  in  my 
power,  as  I  am  sure  it  is  in  my  will,  to  represent  him  to 
the  world  with  impartiality  and  truth. 


APPENDIX  II 

MONEY  LENT  TO  THE  QUEEN  BY  THE 
EARL  OF  OXFORD 

[17 14,  July.] — Two  papers  in  Lord  Oxford's  hand- 
writing, giving  an  "  Account  of  money  laid  out  of  my  own 
for  the  Queen  at  several  times."     The  dates,  between  171 2 


APPENDIX   II  237 

and  July  17 14,  of  the  various  advances  are  given,  but  not 
in  chronological  order,  with  the  amount  of  each  advance 
and  the  name  of  the  person  to  whom  it  was  paid.  In  two 
cases,  however,  some  disguise  is  meant,  for  two  sums  of 
^100  and  ;^200  respectively  are  entered  as  paid  in  March 
1 7 14  to  "  Kuthbert,"  written  in  Greek  characters,  and 
^100  is  paid  to  "  L.  Orde,"  written  in  like  characters,  in 
April  of  that  year. 

Altogether  Lord  Oxford  puts  down  a  total  of  ;6^4700 
due  to  him ;  he  adds,  "  But  it  is  much  more,  as  will  appear 
by  my  memdms. ;  this  is  only  what  occurs  (to  me  ?)." 

A  third  paper,  evidently  written  many  years  after  by 
the  second  Earl  of  Oxford,  runs  thus :  "  Tuesday,  27th 
July  1 7 14. — R.,  Earl  of  Oxford,  delivered  up  the  Treasurer's 
staff  to  the  Queen  in  her  closet.  Her  Majesty  was  pleased 
to  talk  with  him  after  his  delivery  of  the  staff  above  two 
hours,  and  among  other  matters  told  him  she  knew  he  had 
laid  out  several  sums  of  money  for  her  service  and  by  her 
direction,  that  she  expected  he  should  come  to  her  again, 
that  she  would  not  then  give  directions  for  the  payment 
of  the  money,  the  doing  of  which  she  reserved  till  his  next 
coming  to  her. 

"  The  Queen  fell  ill  the  next  day  and  died  the  Sunday 
following,  so  Lord  Oxford  had  no  opportunity  of  waiting 
again  upon  Her  Majesty.  Lord  Oxford,  in  his  lifetime, 
mentioned  often  to  his  brother  and  son  that  a  considerable 
sum  of  money  was  due  to  him  from  the  late  Queen,  but 
by  reason  of  his  troubles  and  his  retirement  in  the  country 
he  did  not  make  application  for  it.  His  son,  the  present 
Earl  of  Oxford,  has  found,  among  his  father's  papers, 
memoranda  in  the  late  Earl's  own  hand  which  specify  that 
the  late  Queen  owed  him  above  £4700. 

"It  is,  therefore,  humbly  hoped  that  out  of  the  money 
applicable  to  the  Queen's  debts  this  sum  may  be  paid." 
— Harley  Papers^  iii.  481. 


238  APPENDIX   III 


APPENDIX    III 

NOTE  ON  THE  MANUSCRIPTS  AND  LETTERS 
OF  AND  RELATING  TO  ROBERT  HARLEY, 
EARL  OF  OXFORD 

As  is  well  known,  and  as  has  been  already  stated 
(p.  216),  the  bulk  of  the  MSS.  collected  by  Robert  Harley 
and  of  his  official  papers  were  purchased  by  the  Trustees 
of  the  British  Museum.  But  a  mass  of  papers  of  an  official 
character  were  not  disposed  of  by  his  daughter-in-law  the 
Countess  of  Oxford,  and  these  remain  at  Welbeck  Abbey. 
Of  the  MSS.  containing  more  especially  correspondence — 
letters  written  to  or  by  Robert  Harley — there  are  now  three 
main  collections:  (i)  That  of  the  Duke  of  Portland  at 
Welbeck  Abbey.  Much  of  this  has  recently  been  published, 
and  is  contained  in  the  Harley  Papers ;  vol.  i.  with  this 
sub-title  is  the  same  as  vol.  iii.  of  the  Manuscripts  of  the 
Duke  of  Portland  preserved  at  Welbeck  Abbey  (Historical 
Manuscripts  Commission,  14th  Report,  Appendix,  part  ii.)  ; 
the  Harley  Papers,  vol.  ii.  =  Portland  MSS.,  vol.  iv.  (Hist. 
MSS.  Com.,  15th  Rep.  App.  part  iv.),  the  Harley  Papers, 
vol.  iii.  =  Portland  MSS.,  vol.  v.  1899  (the  former  official 
enumeration  not  being  continued),  and  the  Harley  Papers, 
vol.  iv.  =  Portland  MSS.,  vol.  vi.  1901.  All  these  papers 
came  into  the  possession  of  the  Duke  of  Portland  when 
Edward  Harley,  second  Earl  of  Oxford,  married  Henrietta 
Cavendish,  only  daughter  and  heiress  of  John,  first  Duke 
of  Newcastle,  the  owner  of  Welbeck  Abbey.  Their  only 
daughter,  Lady  Margaret  Cavendish  Harley — the  "  noble, 
lovely  little  Peggy  "  of  Prior's  charming  lines — married  in 
1734  William,  second  Duke  of  Portland,  to  whom  she 
conveyed  the  estate  of  Welbeck,  and  the  Harley  corre- 
spondence passed  also  to  her  husband.     (2)  The  collection 


APPENDIX   III  239 

of  Mr.  R.  W.  D.  Harley  of  Brampton  Bryan,  Herefordshire. 
Edward,  third  Earl  of  Oxford,  who  succeeded  to  the  title 
and  estates  in  1741,  was  Robert  Harley's  nephew,  being 
the  son  of  Edward  Harley,  Auditor  of  the  Exchequer,  of 
Eyewood,  Herefordshire.  This  collection  consists  chiefly 
of  family  letters  written  by  Robert  Harley  to  his  relatives. 
(3)  The  collection  of  the  Marquis  of  Bath  at  Longleat, 
Wilts.  Thomas,  first  Marquis  of  Bath,  married  in  1759 
Lady  Elizabeth  Cavendish  Bentinck,  eldest  daughter  of 
William,  second  Duke  of  Portland ;  and  by  some  means  a 
box  of  Harley's  papers  came  after  this  marriage  into  the 
possession  of  the  Marquis  of  Bath.  Interesting  extracts 
from  these  papers  have  been  published  in  Aitken's  Life  of 
Arbuthnot^  but  a  selection  from  the  correspondence  will 
shortly  be  published  by  the  Historical  Manuscripts  Com- 
mission. Isolated  letters  written  by  or  relating  to  Harley, 
as  well  as  statements  in  regard  to  him,  are  also  to  be 
found  among  the  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum,  in  various 
collections  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  enumerate,  in  the 
Reports  of  the  Historical  Manuscripts  Commission,  and  in 
published  diaries  and  other  works  well  known  to  the 
student  of  the  age  of  Anne. 


INDEX 


Abjuration  Act,  De  Foe's  allu- 
sion to,  i6i. 
Addison,  Joseph  (1672-1719),   25, 

229,  231,  232. 
Anjou,  Duke  of,  33. 

King  of  Spain,  127. 
Anne,  Queen  (1664-17 14),  Addison's 
criticism  of  age  of,  2,  3. 
Whigs  and  Tories  in  reign   of, 

30,  31- 
part    played     by    sentiment    in 

foreign    affairs    in     reign    of, 

32. 
first  Parliament  of,  35. 
personal  loyalty  for,  at  beginning 

of  reign,  35. 
her  political  position,  38. 
her  predilection  for  High  Church 

party,  38. 
her  dislike  of  Whigs,  38. 
her  influence  in  the  Government, 

39. 
causes  affecting  course  of  English 

politics  in  age  of,  42,  43. 
characteristics  of  men  at  head  of 

affairs  in  reign  of,  45. 
her  preference  for    Tory  party, 

76,81. 
Harley's  reliance  on  support  from, 

77. 
church  patronage  of,  82. 
Junto  determine  to  have  mastery 

over,  83. 
her     power     overestimated     by 

Harley,  85. 
16 


Anne,  Queen — continued. 

her  personal  character  and  diffi- 
culties   of    her    position,    88, 

89. 
her  growing    dislike  of  Whigs, 

93,  94. 
her      friendship      for      Abigail 

Masham,  94-97. 
her    revolt    against    Whigs,    98, 

ICX). 
her    warning    to    Whigs    about 

conclusion  of  peace,  124,  125. 
her  support  of  Harley's  creation 

of  new  peers,  135. 
the    Elector    and    Whig    chiefs 

doubt  good  faith  of,  157. 
objects  to  Electoral  Prince  com- 
ing to  London,  157, 
jealousy  of  her  successor,  164. 
death  of,  169,  171. 
book-collecting  a  fashion  in  age 

of,  209. 
literary    success    dependent    on 

patronage  in  age  of,  219. 
men  of  letters  in  reign  of,  217- 

232. 
connection     between     statesmen 

and  writers  in  age  of,  231. 
outburst    of    literary    activity   in 

reign  of,  231. 
money  lent  to — by  Earl  of  Oxford, 

Appendix  H. 
Arbuthnot,  John  (1658-1735),  109. 
his  letter  to  Swift  about  Harley's 

fall,  165  (n.). 


242 


INDEX 


Arbuthnot,  John — continued, 
biographical  sketch  of,  220  (n. ). 
Swift's  description  of,  221. 
member  of  Scriblerus  Club,  221, 

226,  227,  228,  229. 
member     of     Brothers'      Club, 

223. 
Assiento,  144. 

explanation  of,  148. 

rights  of,  granted  to  England  by 

Treaty      of      Utrecht,      17 13, 

148. 
De  Torcy's  allusion  to,  148. 
Prior's  allusion  to,  148,  149. 
its  effect  on  English  commercial 

expansion,  201. 
Atterbury,    Francis    (1662 -1732), 

134. 

Balmerino,  Lord,  his  reference  to 

Peerage  Bill,  193. 
Bank  of  England,  establishment  of, 
22. 
an  allusion  to,  146. 
Bank,  Land,  scheme  for,  23. 
Plarley's  participation  in,  23. 
Bill  for,  carried,  23. 
failure  of,  24. 
allusion  to,  146,  149. 
Benson,     member    of     House    of 
Commons,    took     proceedings 
against  De   Foe  on  behalf  of 
Whigs,  64. 
director  of  South  Sea  Company, 
147. 
Berwick,  Due  de  (1670-1734),  his 
statement    concerning    Harley 
and  the  Pretender,  181,  182. 
Birch,  Mr.,  his  school  at  Shilton, 

10. 
Blaithwaite,  Mr.,  reference  to,  14. 
Blenheim,  battle  of,  40. 

its  influence  on  polities,  40. 
Bolingbroke  (i 678-1 751),  Viscount, 
Henry  St.   John,   attitude    to 
Harley,  2  (n.). 
his  friendship  for  France,  32. 


Bolingbroke,  V\s,c<i\m\.—contintud. 
author  of  newspaper  tax  of  17 12, 

73. 
obtains  office  in  Harley's  Adminis- 
tration, 103. 
contrast    between    Harley    and, 

104-106. 
Swift's  sketch  of,  105,  106. 
his  desire  to  conclude  peace  with 

France,  126. 
no  share  in  Harley's  creation  of 

new  peers,  136. 
and     peace     negotiations     with 

France,  1 37-139- 
embassy  to  Paris,  139. 
action    in   regard   to  restraining 

orders,  139-142. 
director  of  South  Sea  Company, 

147. 
difference      of     political     views 

between  Harley  and,  151- 154, 

152  (n.). 
originator  of  Treaty  of  Commerce, 

153. 
aspires  to  leadership  of  Tory  party, 

160,  188. 
his    description    of     House     of 

Commons,  159. 
conflict  between  Harley  and,  164, 

165. 
his  share  in  Harley's  fall,  164. 
death  of  Anne  destroys  political 

schemes  of,  169,  171. 
his  negotiations  with   Pretender, 

174. 
his  flight  to  France,  174. 
becomes    Secretary    of   State    to 

Pretender,  174. 
his  unpatriotism,  174. 
Harley's  criticism  of  flight  of,  1 74. 
impeachment  of,  175. 
political  relations  with  Pretender 

and  Elector,  188,  189. 
reasons  for  failure  of  his  plans, 

189. 
his    posthumous   depreciation   of 

Harley,  203. 


INDEX 


243 


Bolingbroke,  Viscount — continued. 
his  estimation  of  Harley's  learn- 
ing, 212. 
founder  of  Brothers'  Chib,  222. 
Bothmar,  representative  of  Hanover 
during  peace  negotiations,  126. 
his  doubts  of  Harley's  sincerity, 
186,  187. 
Brampton     Bryan,     situation     and 
description  of,  6. 
castle  destroyed  by  Royalists,  7. 
present  house  built,  7. 
Harley  retires  to,  1 72. 
Brampton,  Margaret  de,  by  marriage 
brought    Brampton    Bryan    to 
Harley  family,  6. 
British  Museum,  Harley's  share  in 

creating,  209. 
Bromley,      William,       1664- 1732 
(Speaker,    1710;    Secretary  of 
State,  1713),  his  correspondence 
with  Harley,  194. 
Brothers'  Club,  formation  of,  222. 
Bolingbroke  founder  of,  222. 
Swift's  description  of,  222,  223. 
Bolingbroke's  description  of,  223. 
extravagance  of,  224. 
Scriblerus  Club  grew  out  of,  225. 
Buys,  Dutch  Minister,  126. 

Cabinet,  transference  of  power  to, 
30. 
formation  of  Harley's  Tory,  103. 
Chamberlen,  Dr.  Hugh,  originator 

of  Land  Bank  Scheme,  23. 

Chamillart     (1651-1721),     French 

Secretary     of    State,      Greg's 

correspondence  with,  S6. 

Charles  of  Austria  becomes  Emperor, 

127. 
Charles  II.  of  Spain,  death  of,  33. 
bequeathed  crown   to  Dauphin's 
son,  33. 
Commerce,  Treaty  of,  between  Eng- 
land and  France,  17 13,  153. 
Bolingbroke  originator  of,  153. 
defeat  of  Bill  for,  154. 


Commercial  expansion  of  England, 

201,  202. 
Coningsby,    Lord,  (i656(?)-i729), 

175  (n-). 
his     impeachment     of     Harley, 

175. 
Cowper,  first  Earl  (d.  1723),  member 
of  Whig  Junto,  loi. 
his  character  of  Harley,  202. 

Dartmouth,  first  Earl  of,  William 
Legge  (1672-1750),  succeeds 
Sunderland  as  Secretary  of 
State,  98. 

retains  Secretaryship  in  Harley 
Ministry,  104. 

on  accession  of  George  i.  Harley 
expresses  his  hopes  to,  172,  173 

(n.). 
Debt,  National,  144. 
De  Foe,  Daniel  (1661-1731),  quota- 
tion from,  I. 

his  "Maxim  of  Politicks,"  4. 

his  attitude  to  Occasional  Con- 
formity Bill,  40. 

entered  into  close  relations  with 
Harley,  47. 

writes  The  Shortest  Way  with 
Dissenters,  47. 

his  prosecution  for  libel,  47. 

his  conviction  and  sentence,  47, 
48. 

regained  his  liberty  through 
Harley's  good  offices,  November 
1703,  48  (n.). 

his  first  letter  to  Harley,  48,  49, 

50. 
the  vitality  and  originality  of  his 

letters,  48. 
ruin  of  his  tile  manufactory,  5c. 
how  Harley  helped,  51. 
a  pamphleteer  and  political  agent, 

51. 
through   Harley  again  placed  in 

touch  with  Government,  51. 
had     possessed     confidence     of 

William  in.,  51. 


244 


INDEX 


De  Foe,  Daniel — continued. 

his  writings  compared  to  Vol- 
taire's and  Diderot's,  52. 

relations  with  Harley  not  based 
on  friendship  but  business,  52. 

had  much  in  common  with 
Harley,  53. 

not  always  consistent  in  treat- 
ment   of    political    questions, 

53. 

Harley's  employment  of,  in  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  54. 

his  assumed  name,  54. 

his  fertile  and  imaginative  mind, 

54. 
Harley  obtains  an  allowance  for, 

54. 
commissioned  by',Harley  to  travel 

through  England  to  ascertain 

opinions,  55. 
value  of  his  letters  to  Harley,  55. 
his  moulding  of  public  opinion, 

55. 
Harley's  chief  ally  during  union 

with  Scotland  negotiations,  57. 
goes  to  Scotland  to  make'political 

survey  for  Harley,  57. 
an    apostle    of   the    union   with 

Scotland,  58. 
his  hope  of  official  employment, 

59- 

his  preference  for  Harley  as  an 

employer,  59,  60. 
his  opinion   on   Harley's  fall  in 

1705,59,60. 
offers  his  services  to  Godolphin, 

61. 
his  return  to  Harley  in  17 10,  61. 
his  services  to  Harley  as  a  writer, 

63. 

brought  before  Lord  Chief  Justice 
for  writing  Reasons  against  the 
Hanover  Succession,  64. 

admitted  to  bail  by  Harley's 
management,  64,  6$. 

Harley  obtains  pardon  under 
Great  Seal  for,  68. 


De  Foe,  Daniel — continued. 

writes  and  manages  Review 
from  1 704-1 7 13,  68. 

his  support  of  Harley's  policy, 
69. 

his  desire  for  commercial  expan- 
sion expressed  in  Revieiv,  69. 

his  Mercator,  69. 

supports  Harley's  financial 
measures  and  commercial 
treaty,  69,  70. 

publishes  Eleven  Opinions  about 
Mr.  H y  in  171 1,  70. 

defends  his  patron's  political 
conduct  in  The  Secret  History 
of  the  White  Staff  in  17 14, 
70. 

at  death  of  Anne  enters  employ- 
ment of  new  Government,  70. 

his  opinion  on  Harley's  Draw- 
back Bill,  79. 

his  letter  to  Harley  in  17 10,  99. 

his  suggestions  to  Harley  how 
to  defeat  Occasional  Con- 
formity Bill,  129-132. 

his  influence  on  South  Sea 
Scheme,  149-151,  204. 

his  letter  to  Harley  about  Schism 
Bill,  160,  161. 

his  criticisms  of  Harley's  dealings 
with  Jacobites,  186  (n.),  187. 

his  connection  with  Harley 
political,  217. 

his  sincerity,  218. 

took  no  part  in  literary  gatherings 
in  London,  220. 

his  works  have  become  classics, 

232. 

D'Ewes,       Sir      Simon,       Harley 

purchases    his     collection    of 

books,  216. 

Drawback  Bill,  its  introduction,  78. 

feeling  in  Scotland  about,  79. 
Drummond,    John,    Harley's    con- 
fidential   agent    in    Holland, 
correspondence    of,    1 1 4  -  1 1 7, 
118,  12a 


INDEX 


245 


Dutch,      English      Dissenters      in 

sympathy  with,  31. 
friendship    for,    partly  cause    of 

Whig  opposition  to  Treaty  of 

Utrecht,  32. 
their  attitude  to  England  during 

peace  negotiations,  138,  140. 
Harley's  restraining  orders  showed 

necessity  of  concluding  peace  to, 

140,  141. 
their  jealousy  of  Great   Britain, 

143. 
Duyvenvoorde,     Baron,      Harley's 
comment  to,  on  proposed  visit 
of  Electoral  Prince  to  England, 
158. 

Elector  of  Hanover  (son  of  Elec- 
tress  Sophia  and  afterwards 
George  i.of  England),  unfavour- 
able impressions  of  Harley  con- 
veyed to,  155,  156,  186,  187. 

his  ignorance  of  England,  156. 

he  doubts  good  faith  of  Queen 
Anne,  157. 

he  doubts  Harley's  professions 
of  friendship  for  House  of 
Hanover,   159. 

his  accession  to  English  throne, 
171. 
Electoral  Prince  (son  of  Elector, 
grandson  of  Electress  Sophia), 
the  Electress  Sophia  and  her 
son  demand  writ  of  summons 
to  House  of  Lords  for,  157. 

his  visit  to  England  objected  to 
by  Queen  Anne  and  Harley, 

157,  158. 

Electress  of  Hanover,  Sophia, 
156. 

England,  commercial  expansion  of, 
22. 

Eugene,  Prince  (1667- 1736),  his 
description  of  Harley,  104. 

Evelyn,  John  (1620- 1706),  his 
reference  to  Harley's  appoint- 
ment as  Speaker,  29. 


Examiner^    The,    established     by 
Bolingbroke,  112. 
Swift's  essays  in,  112. 

Foley,  Elizabeth,  Harley's  first 

wife,  13. 
Foley,  Thomas,  father  -  in  -  law  to 

Harley,   13. 
Foubert,   Monsieur,  for  some  time 

Harley's  schoolmaster,   12. 
his    academy    near    Hay  market, 

12. 
France,  England's  attitude  towards, 

32. 
friendship  for,    basis  of  Boling- 

broke's  commercial  treaty,  32. 
reasons   for    change   of    English 

public  opinion  towards,  33. 
England's    declaration    of    war 

against,  35. 
Harley's  peace  negotiations  with, 

122,  123. 
the  humbled  power  of,  127. 
England's  desire  for  peace  with, 

133- 
peace  with,  140-144. 
what  England  gained  from,  143, 

144. 
defeat    of    Bill    for     Treaty    of 

Commerce  with,  153,  154. 

"  Gassiot,  Jean,"  assumed  name  of 

Ogilvie,  54. 
Gaultier,  I'Abbe  (1745-1818),  allu- 
sion to,  122,  123,  181,  182. 
Gay,  John  (1688-1732),  109. 
appointed     secretary     to     Lord 
Clarendon's  mission  to    Han- 
over, 218  (n.). 
biographical  sketch  of,  221  (n.). 
member  of  Scriblerus  Club,  221, 
226,  227,  228. 
Godolphin,  Sydney,  Earl  of  (1635- 
17 12),    nominates     Harley    as 
Speaker,  28. 
leader  of  Tories  in  first  Parliament 
of  Anne,  35, 


246 


INDEX 


Godolphin,  Sydney — continued. 
and  the  War  of  Spanish  Succession, 

36. 
his  hopes  of  Harley  as  a  member 

of  his  administration,  38. 
his  trust  in  Harley's  abilities,  39. 
Mr.  Lecky's  character  of,  45. 
comparison  with  Harley,  45. 
called    with     Marlborough    and 

Harley,  Triumvirate,  45. 
qualities  as  a  statesman,  46. 
and    the    union    with    Scotland, 

56. 
promises  De  Foe  official  employ- 
ment, 58,  59. 
employs  De  Foe  on  fall  of  Harley 

in  1710,  61. 
first  difference    between    Harley 

and,  76. 
sides  with  Whigs,  76. 
his  reference   to   Drawback  Bill, 

79- 

increasing      difference      between 

Harley  and,  80-82. 
his  final  letter  to  Harley,  84  (n.). 
Harley's   resignation    a   personal 

victory  for,  89. 
his  reliance  on  Whigs,  93. 
circumstances     tending     to     his 

downfall,  93,  94  (n.),  97,  98. 
his  dismissal,  98. 
allusion  to  his  dismissal,  166. 
Lady   Masham    a    cause    of   his 

fall,  170. 
his  occupation  in  leisure,  209. 
"Goldsmith,  Mr.,"  assumed  name 

of  De  Foe  in  England,  54. 
Greg,   William,    clerk   in   Harley's 

office,  86. 
treasonable    correspondence     of, 

86. 
his  trial  and  execution,  87. 
Grey,    Lord    (i  764-1 845),   allusion 

to    his    threat    to    create  new 

peers  in  1832,  135. 
"  Guilot,    Claude,"    De    Foe's   as- 
sumed name  in  Scotland,  54. 


Guiscard,  character  of,  121. 
attempts  Harley's  life,  121. 

Halifax,  Marquis  of.     See  Mon- 
tague. 
Hanoverian    succession,    doubts    of 

Harley's  support  of,   155,   156, 

186. 
doubts  of  Queen   Anne's  desire 

for,  157. 
majority    of    English    people  in 

favour  of,   159. 
safeguarding  of,  182. 
Harley's  statement  of  his  support 

of,  184. 
Harley's  zeal  for,  185. 
Harcourt,  Simon,  Baron  (1661  (?)- 

1727),  at  school  with   Harley, 

10. 
takes    office    in    Harley's    Tory 

administration,  103  (n.),  104. 
influence  in   Harley's  trial,  177, 

178. 
Harley,     Brilliana     Lady     (1600- 

1643),  her  letters,  8. 
birth,  marriage,  character,  8. 
defence  of  Brampton  Castle,  9. 
her  heroism,  9. 
letter  to  her  husband,  9. 
death,  9. 
Harley,    Edward   (1664- 17 35),    his 

description  of  his  father,  10. 
M.P.  for  Leominster,  25  (n.). 
Auditor  of  the  Imprest,  25,  37  (n.). 
mention  of,  174,  175,  214. 
Harley's    statement     concerning 

Hanoverian  succession  to,  184. 
Harley,  Edward  Lord  (i 689-1 741), 

Harley's  eldest  son,  his  home  at 

Wimpole,  172. 
his  kindness  to  Prior,  195,  196. 
Harley  gives  charge  of  library  to, 

214. 
he  adds  to  library  recklessly,  215. 
his  death,  215. 
Harley,   Sir  Edward  (1624- 1700), 
character  of,  9. 


INDEX 


247 


Harley,  Sir  Edward — continued. 

public  career,  9,  10. 

his  son,    Auditor    Harley's    de- 
scription of,  10. 

death,  10. 

fragments  of  letters  from,  11,  12, 
18. 
Harley,    Nathaniel,    Harley's    pro- 
fession of  his  innocency  to,  183. 
Harley,  Robert  de,  6. 
Harley,    Sir    Robert    (1579- 1656), 
character  of,  7. 

his  friends,  7. 

his  Puritanism,  7. 

his  iconoclasm,  7,  8  (n.). 

his  third  marriage,  8. 
Harley,    Robert,    Earl    of    Oxford 
(1661-1724),      character       in 
history,    1-6. 

Macaulay's  description  of,  2. 

his  ancestors — grandfather,  father, 
5-10. 

early  life,  10-12. 

first  marriage,  13. 

second  marriage,  13,  199. 

Member  for  Tregony,  13. 

Member  for  New  Radnor,  14. 

early  work  in  Parliament,  14. 

Commissioner     for     Public     Ac- 
counts,  15. 

letter  to  his  father,  15-17. 

supports  Triennial  Bill,  17. 

opposes  large  standing  army,  19- 
21,  200,  204. 

carries  Act  to  establish  National 
Land  Bank,  22-24. 

early  political  position,  24,  25. 

character  in  early  manhood,  26, 
27. 

Speaker  of  House  of  Commons, 
28,  28  (n.). 

how     his    candidature    was    re- 
garded, 29. 

Evelyn's  note  on,  29. 

his    perception    of   influence    of 
journalists,  32,  71,  74. 

impeachment  of,  175,  176. 


Harley,  Robert — continued. 
chosen  Speaker  in  William's  last 

Parliament,  34. 
elected  Speaker  first   Parliament 

of  Anne  (i  702-1 705),  35,  36. 
effect  of  war  on   policy  of,  35, 

36. 
Secretary  of  State,  37. 
letter  from,  37  (n.). 
his     opposition     to     extravagant 

financial  policy  of  William  in., 

37  (n.). 

accession  to  Cabinet,  39. 

Godolphin's  reliance  on,  39. 

his  attitude  to  Godolphin  from 
1 704- 1 707,  39. 

Duke  of  Shrewsbury's  apprecia- 
tion of,  40. 

his  parliamentary  tact,  40. 

his  share  in  defeating  Tories' 
tacking  of  an  Occasional  Con- 
formity Bill  to  Land  Bill,  41. 

letter  from  Marlborough   to,   42 

(n.). 

effect  of  Blenheim  on,  40,  42. 
his  political  position  from  1701- 

1708,  43,  44. 
Mr.  Lecky's  criticism  of,  45. 
comparison  with  Godolphin,  45. 
qualities  which  led  to  his  success, 

46. 
his  capacity  as  a  leader  in   the 

Commons,  46. 
his  relations  with  De  Foe,  47. 
De  Foe  released  from  Newgate 

through  intercession  of,  48  (n.). 
letter  to,    on   De    Foe's  release 

from  Godolphin,  48. 
first  letter  to,  from  De  Foe,  48. 
rescues  De  Foe  when  friendless 

and  moneyless,  51. 
his  patronage  a  source  of  liveli- 
hood to  De  Foe,  51. 
relations   with    De    Foe    strictly 

business-like,  52,  53,  217. 
had  much   in   common  with  De 

Foe,  53. 


248 


INDEX 


Harley,  Robert — continued. 
extremism  repugnant  to,  53. 
never  niggardly  in  his  payment 

to  De  Foe,  53. 
employment  of  Ogilvie  in  Paris, 

De  Foe  in  England  and  Scot- 
land, 53,  54. 
his  reticence,  vagueness,  and  want 

of  candour,  54. 
obtained  an    allowance   for    De 

Foe,  54. 
he  commissions  De  Foe  to  travel 

through  England   to  ascertain 

opinions,  55. 
the   value  of   De    Foe's    letters 

to,  55. 
importance   of   connection    with 

De  Foe  at   time  of   question 

of  union  with  Scotland,  56, 
his  aid  and  approval   of  Godol- 

phin's  measures,  56  (n.). 
sends  De  Foe  to  make  survey  of 

Scotland,  57. 
retirement  from  office,   1708,  De 

Foe's  opinion  of,  59,  60,  61. 
De  Foe's    writings  valuable    to, 

63. 
manages  to  have  De  Foe  admitted 

to  bail  when  again  in  danger  of 

Newgate,  64. 
obtains  pardon  under  Great  Seal 

for  him,  68, 
his  policy  supported  by  De  Foe 

in   the  Review  and  Mercator^ 

68,  69,  70. 
defence  of  his  political  conduct 

by  De  Foe  in  1714,  70. 
his    political    development     be- 
tween 1706  and  1708,  75. 
realised  strength  to  be  obtained 

by  alliance  with  the  Queen,  76. 
first    difference   between   Godol- 

phin  and,  76. 
his  policy  when  Godolphin  sided 

with  the  Whigs,  76,  77. 
for  time  head  of  Tory  party,  77. 
introduces  Drawback  Bill,  78. 


Harley,  Robert — continued, 
motives  for  bringing  in  Bill,  78, 

79,  8o(n.). 
increasing     difference      between 

Godolphin  and,  80-82. 
his  rising  influence  with  Queen, 

82. 
his  opposition  to  Junto,    83,  84 

(n.). 
his  intimacy  with    Abigail  Hill, 

82. 
overestimated  power   of  Crown, 

85. 
a  victim  to  his  use  of  espionage, 

86,  87. 
his  resignation,  89. 
his    definite    alliance    with    the 

Tories,  90. 
active  opposition  to  Godolphin, 

94. 
Abigail    Masham's  influence   on 

position  of,  94. 
his  political   relations  with  her, 

96,  97. 
appointed  Chancellor  of  Exche- 
quer and  Prime  Minister,  98. 
his  political  position,  99,  100. 
his  negotiations  with  the   Whig 

Junto,  lOl. 
his  relations  with  Halifax,  102. 
his  political  moderation,  103. 
his  formation  of  Tory  Cabinet, 

103. 
created  Earl  of  Oxford  and  Earl 

Mortimer,  104,  122. 
appointed   Lord  Treasurer,  104, 

122. 
contrast     between     Bolingbroke 

and,  104-106. 
Prince   Eugene's  description  of, 

105. 
commencement  of  friendship  with 

Swift,  107. 
his  relations  with  Swift,  110-I12, 

217,  220. 
relations    of   Marlborough    and, 
I 12-120. 


INDEX 


249 


Harley,  Robert — continued, 
conclusion  of  peace  object  of  his 

policy,  1 20  (n.)- 
Guiscard's  attempt   on    his  life, 

121. 
his  popularity,  122. 
his      peace      negotiations     with 

France,  122,  123. 
Marlborough's  hostility  to,  124. 
passing  of  Occasional  Conformity 

Bill   contrary  to   principle  of, 

128,  129. 
letter  from  De  Foe  with  sugges- 
tion how  to  defeat  Bill  to,  129- 

132. 
his    confidence    during    political 

crisis  of  171 1,  133. 
creates   twelve   new  peers,    133, 

135.  136. 
obtains  Marlborough's  dismissal, 

133. 
his  share  in  peace   negotiations, 

137,  138,  139. 
sends      restraining      orders      to 

Ormond,  139-142. 
secures   Peace  of  Utrecht,    142, 

204,  205. 
his  financial  policy,  145. 
his  South  Sea  Scheme,  146-151, 

204. 
De   Foe's  correspondence  about 

South  Sea  Scheme  with,  149- 

151- 
his    political    views    differ    from 

those  of  Bolingbroke,  151- 154, 

I52(n.)._ 
his    share  in    defeat    of  certain 

clauses  in  Treaty  of  Commerce, 

153- 
his  relations  with  Hanover,   155- 

159,  185. 
his  antagonism  to  proposed  visit 

of  Electoral  Prince,  159. 
his  action   in  regard  to   Schism 

Bill,  160-164,  200. 
Whigs  and  Tories   suspicious   of 

his  good  faith,  163. 


Harley,  Robert — continued. 
comparison    between    Peel   and, 

163,  164. 
conflict  between  Bolingbroke  and, 

164. 
his  appeals,  to  the  Queen,   164, 

165. 
Lady  Masham  final  factor  in  fall 

of,  165  (n.). 
his  dismissal,  166. 
Lady  Masham's  reasons  for  dis- 
missal of,  166,  167,  170. 
his  attitude  after  his  fall,    167, 

168. 
his'  poHtical  intimacy  with  Hali- 
fax, 169,  187,  206. 
reasons  for  his  fall,  168- 1 70. 
his  health,  171. 
his  position  on  death  of  Anne, 

172. 
his  hopes  on  accession  of  George 

I.,  171,  172  (n.). 
commencement    of    proceedings 

against,  173. 
his    criticisms    of    Bolingbroke's 

plight,  174. 
his    committal     to    the    Tower, 

176. 
his  defence  of  his  political  actions, 

176,  177. 
for  two  years  a  prisoner  in  Tower, 

177. 
his  trial  in  1717,  177,  17S. 
Harcourt's  action   in    the    trial, 

177. 
steps  in  impeachment    of,    178, 

179  (n.). 

his  acquittal,  178. 

public  opinion  of,  180. 

his  political  dealings  with  the 
Jacobites,  180-189. 

a  link  between  old  and  new  polit- 
ical systems,  189,  190. 

characteristics  of  last  years  of 
administration,  190. 

his  political  life  after  release  from 
Tower,  190-193. 


250 


INDEX 


Harley,  Robert — continued. 

his  opposition  to  Mutiny  Bill  and 
Peerage  Bill,  190-193,  192  (n.). 

his  hopes  of  Tory-Whig  combina- 
tion, 192,  193. 

his   retirement   from  public   life, 

193,  194. 
his  indifference  to  financial  distress 

owing  to  failure  of  South  Sea 

Company,  194. 
his  country  life,  194. 
intercourse  with  his  friends,  194. 
correspondence  with    Prior   and 

Swift,  194-200. 
his  death,  199. 
summary  of  his  character  and  life, 

200-207. 
his  financial  purity,  202. 
Pope's  praise  of  his   philosophic 

tranquillity  in  retirement,  203. 
his    knowledge    of    continental 

affairs,  204. 
his  domestic  policy,  204,  205. 
his  taste  for  collecting  books  and 

manuscripts,  208,  209. 
as  a  scholar,  210-212. 
contrast  of  his  enjoyments  to  those 

of  a  later  age,  210. 
Wanley's  introduction  to,  213. 
he   appoints  Wanley  his  library 

keeper,  213. 
he  adds  D'Ewes  Collection  to  his 

library,  214. 
dispersal  of  his  library,  215. 
his  manuscripts  sold   to  nation, 

216. 
his  friendship  with  men  of  letters, 

216-232. 
he    condemns    extravagance    of 

Brothers'  Club,  224. 
a  member  of  ScriblerusClub,  225, 

226,  227. 
Swift's  sobriquet  of,  226. 
his    disappearance  from   literary 

group  of  friends,  227. 
his    pleasant    memories    of    his 

literary  friends,  228,  229. 


Harley,  Robert — continued. 

Swift's  character  of.  Appendix  I., 

233. 
money  lent  to  Queen  Anne  by, 

Appendix  II.,  236. 
note    on    his    manuscripts    and 
letters,  Appendix  III.,  238. 
Harley,  Thomas,  cousin  of  Harley, 
Earl  of  Oxford,  his  mission  to 
Hanover,  157. 
English  Envoy  at  Hanover,  185. 
Hedge,  Sir  Charles,  Harley's  sup- 
port of,  80. 
Hicks,    Dr.    George  (1642-1715), 
211  (n.). 
his  introduction    of   Wanley  to 
Harley,  213. 
High  -  Flyer,     extreme     intolerant 
High  Churchmen  so  called,  47. 
Hill,  Abigail.     See  Masham. 
Holland.     Sec  Dutch. 

Jacobites,  36. 

Bolingbroke's  intrigues  with,  174. 
Harley's  dealings  with,  180-189. 
their  belief  in  Harley,  186  (n.). 
Jekyll,  Sir  Joseph,  his  defence  of 

Harley,  175,  176. 
Journalism,  its  increasing  influence 
realised  by  Harley,  32. 
De  Foe's  contributions  to,  68-70, 

73.  74. 
check  on  growth  of,  72. 
Junto,  75,  83,  84,  85,  100,  201. 

Kentish  petitioners  committed  to 
prison,  34. 

Land  Tax,  41,  162. 
Lecky,  Mr.  W.   E.,  his  excuse  for 
Whigs  for  share  in  passing  Oc- 
casional Conformity  Bill,  128. 
Lewis,  Erasmus  (1670-1754),  intro- 
duces Swift  to  Harley,  108. 
sketch  of  his  life,  108,  109. 
mention  of,  132. 
Littleton,  Sir  Thomas,  34. 


INDEX 


251 


Louis  XIV.  and  the  Partition  Treaties 
of  1698  and  1700,  33. 

his  disregard  for  international 
engagements,  33. 

accepts  crown  of  Spain  for 
grandson,  Duke  of  Anjou,  33. 

took  possession  of  Spanish  for- 
tresses in  Netherlands,  1 701, 33. 

recognised  Pretender  as  King  of 
England,  1701. 

peace  negotiations  between  Eng- 
land and,  122,  123. 

no  longer  a  menace  to  European 
peace,  127. 

Macintosh,  Sir  James,  statement 
concerning  Harley  and  Pre- 
tender made  by,  182. 

Malt  Tax,  Halifax  alludes  to,  162. 

Marlborough,   Duchess  of,  her  op- 
position to  Harley,  88. 
her  jealousy  of  Abigail  Masham, 

94. 

her  declining  influence  on  Anne, 
96. 
Marlborough,  John  Churchill,  Duke 
of  (1650-1722),  his  dislike   of 
parties,  37,  113. 

induces  Harley  to  become  Secre- 
tary of  State,  37. 

his  increased  trust  in  Harley,  39. 

letter  to  Harley,  42  (n.). 

a  lukewarm  believer  in  Godol- 
phin's  policy,  81. 

sides  with  Junto  against  Harley, 

83. 
refuses  to   remain   in  office  with 

Harley,  88. 
his  reliance  of  Whig  support,  93. 
growing  dislike  of  Queen  for,  98. 
his  attitude   to    Harley  in  17 10, 

113-120. 
his  wish  to  end  war,  124. 
his  opposition  to  Harley's  policy, 

124,  126. 
charges  against,  132. 
dismissal  of,  133,  135. 


Masham,  Abigail,  82,  94. 
her  influence    with    the    Queen, 

94,  95,  165. 

quarrel     with     her    cousin     the 

Duchess  of  Marlborough,  94. 
her  relationship  to  Harley,  95. 
Swift's  opinion  of,  95. 
her   opinion   of   Anne    in    1708, 

95,  96. 

her      political      relations      with 

Harley,  96,  97. 
final     factor    in    Harley's     fall, 

165. 
her  letter  to  Swift  about  Harley, 

166. 
her    reasons    for     dismissal     of 

Harley,  166,  167. 
probable   reasons  for  her  antag- 
onism to  Harley,  170. 
Mercator^  The.       See  De  Foe. 
Middleton,  Sarah,  Harley's  second 

wife,  13,  199  (n.)- 
Montague,  Charles,  Earl  of  Halifax 

(1661-1715),    on    question    of 

standing  army,  21. 
established  Bank  of  England,  22. 
biography  of,  26. 
friendship  with  Harley,  26,  27. 
impeachment  of,  34. 
his     position     during     reign     of 

William  ill.,  102. 
negotiations     with      Harley      in 

i7ioand  1711,  loi,  102. 
carried  motion  against   proposed 

terms    of  peace   with  France, 

137. 

his  private  approval  of  peace,  142. 

in  close  confidence  with  Harley 
in  1713,  154  (n.). 

his  opinion  of  Schism  Bill  in  re- 
ference to  Harley,  162. 

his  close  terms  of  political  inti- 
macy with  Harley,  169,  187, 
206. 

least  bigoted  of  Whigs,  206. 
Mortimer,  Earl.  See  Harley,  Earl  of 
Oxford. 


252 


INDEX 


Murray,  Anthony,  his  letter  to 
Harley  from  Hanover,  156. 

Mutiny  Bill,  Harley's  opposition  to, 
190. 

New  Radnor,  Harley  member  for, 

14. 
Newspaper  tax  of  17 12,  72. 
Nottingham,  Daniel  Finch,  second 
Earlof(i647-i73o),  38. 
nickname  of  *'  Dismal,"  125. 
his  opposition  to  Harley's  peace 

proposals,  125. 
introduces     Occasional     Confor- 
mity Bill,  128. 

Occasional  Conformity  Bill  passes 
through  Commons,  40. 
explanation  of,  40,  41. 
loss  of,  41. 

a  second  on  similar  lines  carried 
by  Tories  through  Commons, 
rejected  by  Lords,  41. 
an  Occasional  Conformity  Bill  to 
be  tacked  by  Tories  to  a  Land 
Bill,  defeated,  41. 
again  introduced  by  Nottingham 

and  passed  both  Houses,  128. 
De  Foe's   suggestion  to  defeat, 
129-132. 
October  Club,  allusion  to,  70. 
Ogilvie,  "Jean   Gassiot "  assumed 
name  of,  54. 
employed  by  Harley  for  political 
purposes  in  Paris,  54. 
Onslow  Sir  Thomas,  28  (n.). 
Orford,    Edward    Russel,    Earl   of 
(1653-1727),  placed  at  head  of 
Board  of  Admiralty,  93. 
Ormond,   James   Butler,    Duke  of, 
superseded     Marlborough      in 
command  of  English  army  on 
Continent,  140. 
Harley's   restraining    orders    to, 

140. 
Bolingbroke  writes  to,  141,  142. 
member  of  Brothers'  Club,  224. 


Osborne   buys   Harley's  collection 

of  books,  215. 
Oxford,     Earl     of.      See     Harley, 

Robert. 

Parnell,  Thos.  (i679-i7i8),i09. 
member  of  Scriblerus  Club,  221, 

226,  227. 
biographical  sketch  of,  221  (n.), 
introduced  by  Swift  to  Harley  in 
1712,  222. 
Parties.     See  Whigs  and  Tories, 
growth  of,  30. 
posthumous  influence  of  William 

III.  on,  31. 
characteristics^of  divisions  of,  in 

reign  of  Anne,  36. 
Marlborough's    dislike     of,     37, 

113- 
Harley's  repugnance  for,  43. 
Partition  Treaties  (1698  and  1700), 

Louis  XIV. 's  disregard  of,  33. 
Peel,  Robert,  comparison  between 

Harley  and,  163,  164. 
Peerage  Bill  introduced  by  Sunder- 
land and  Stanhope,  191. 
Harley's  opposition  to,  191. 
object  of,  191. 
Harley's  motives  for    opposing, 

192. 
steps  of  the  measure,  192. 
defeat  of,  193. 
Peers,  creation  of  new,  by  Harley, 

133. 
constitutional  result  of,  135,  136. 
Pope    Alexander   (1688-1744),   his 
estimate  of  Harley,  5. 
his  praise  of  Harley's  philosophic 

tranquillity,  203. 
allusion  to,  109. 
Harley's  interest  in,  219. 
member  of  Scriblerus  Club,  222, 
226,  227,  228. 
Portland,  impeachment  of,  34. 
Pretender,  Old,  son  of  James   11., 
recognised    by   Louis   xiv.   as 
King  of  England,  1701,  33. 


INDEX 


253 


Pretender,  Old — continued. 
impeachment   against  supporters 

of,  173. 
Bolingbroke's  negotiations  with, 

174. 
Bolingbroke  becomes  Secretary  of 

State  to,  174. 
Ilarley's  supposed  intrigues  with, 

180-189. 
no  evidence  of   practical  scheme 
for  restoration  of,  188. 
Prior,  Matthew  (1664-1721),  allu- 
sion to,  109,  no. 
his  mission  to  Paris,  123. 
his  observation  to  de  Torcy  about 

Assiento,  148,  149. 
diplomatist  and  poet,  194. 
his     occasional     correspondence 

with  Harley,  194. 
kindness  of  Harley's  eldest  son 

to,  195. 
his  death,  196. 

member  of  Scriblerus  Club,  222. 
member  of  Brothers'  Club,  223. 
his  poetical  invitation  to  a  dinner 
of  Brothers'  Club,  224. 

Reform  Bill,  allusion  to,  135. 
Revenues  of  England,  144. 
Review,     See  De  Foe. 

Sacheverell,     Henry     (1674- 
1724),  his  trial  a  cause  of  Go- 
dolphin's  fall,  98. 
fleeting  popularity  of,  134. 
Salt  Tax,  23. 

Schism  Bill,  passing  of,  160. 
object  of,  160. 
De   Foe's  letter  to   Harley  on, 

160,  161. 
Halifax's  letter  to  Harley  on,  162. 
Harley's  action  in  regard  to,  163. 
Schutz,  Baron,  Hanoverian  Envoy 
to  London,  155. 
his  opinion  of  Harley's  fidelity  to 
Hanoverian    succession,     155, 
156. 


Schutz,  Baron — continued. 
demands    writ    of   summons    to 
House  of  Lords  for  Electoral 
Prince,  156,  157,  185. 
Scriblerus  Club,  members  of,  220, 
222,  226. 
its  growth,  225. 
characteristics  of,  225,  229. 
Harley  a  member  of,  225. 
short  life  of,  226,  228. 
publications  by  members  of,  226, 

227. 
Pope  and  Parnell's  farewell   to, 
228. 
Settlement,  Act  of,  182,  188,  189. 
Seymour,  Sir  Edward,  Tory  leader 

in  1 701,  28. 
Shrewsbury,  Duke  of,  his  comment 
on      Harley's      accession      to 
Cabinet,  40. 
De  Foe's  allusion  to,  99. 
Somers,  John,  Baron  (1652-1716), 
impeachment  of,  34. 
his  advice  to  William  in.,  34. 
his  negotiations  with  Halifax  and 
Harley,  loi,  169. 
South  Sea  Company,  mainspring  of 
Harley's  financial  policy,  146. 
details  of  scheme,  146,  147. 
inception  of,  largely  due  to  De 

Foe,  149. 
De    Foe's    correspondence  with 

Harley  on,  149-151,  204. 
influence    of,    on    expansion    of 

Great  Britain,  201. 
Act  for  incorporation,  146,  147. 
Harley  governor  of,  147. 
St.  John  and  Benson  directors, 

147. 
its  monopoly  of  trade  in   South 

Seas,  147. 
slave  trade  to  be  means  of  profit 

to,  148. 
its     connection     with     Harley's 

administration,  148. 
Harley's  indifference  to  financial 
distress  on  failure  of,  194. 


254 


INDEX 


Spain,  Charles  il.  of,  33. 

Partition  Treaties  concerning,  33. 
Spanish  Succession,  War  of,  events 
leading  up  to,  33. 
declaration  of,  35. 
"Whig  and  Tory  approval  of,  35. 
effect  of,   on    English    domestic 

politics,  35,  36. 
growing  unpopularity  of,  in  Eng- 
land, 93,  98. 
changed    state     of     continental 

affairs  before  the  end  of,  127. 
Treaty  of  Utrecht,  171 3,  puts  end 
to,  137. 
Standing  army,  20,  21,  191. 
Stanhope,  James,  first  Earl  (1673- 
1721),   and  the   Peerage   Bill, 
191-193. 
Steele,    Sir   Richard    (1675-1729), 

229,  231,  232. 
Stephens,     Abigail,    Sir      Edward 
Harley's  second  wife,  mother 
of    Robert    Harley,    Earl    of 
Oxford,  10. 
Strafford,  third  Earl  of  (1672-1739), 
Harley     writes     about     Whig 
opposition  to,  126  (n.). 
Bolingbroke  mentions  defeat  of 
Bill  of  Treaty  of  Commerce  to, 

154. 

Lord  Berkley  writes  to,  159. 
Sunderland,  Charles  Spencer,  third 
Earl  of  (1675-1722),  Harley's 
opposition  to  his  appointment 
as  Secretary  of  State,  80. 

his  dismissal  in  1 7 10,  97. 

Queen's  dislike  of,  98. 

he  introduces  Peerage  Bill,  191- 

193- 
his  literary  taste,  209. 
contrast  of  pleasures  and  those  of 

a  later  age,  210. 
Addison  and   Steele   friends  of, 

229. 
Swift,  Jonathan   (1667- 1745),    his 

outspokenness  contrasted  with 

Harley's  reticence,  54. 


Swift,  Jonathan — contintud. 
his  opinion  of  Abigail  Masham, 

95- 
his  sketch  of  Bolingbroke,  105. 
his  arrival  from  Ireland,  108  (n.). 
his  introduction  to  Harley,  108. 
his  relations  with  Harley,  1 10- 1 1 2. 
his  essays  in  Examiner^  112. 
his  political  pamphlets,  112. 
his    reference     to    necessity    of 

peace,  122. 
his  depression  about  Tory  pro- 
spects, 132. 
Dr.  Arbuthnot's  letter  on  Harley's 

fall,  165  (n.). 
Lady  Masham's  letter  on  Harley 

to,  166. 
Harley's    announcement    of   his 

fall  to,  167. 
his  correspondence  with  Harley, 

196-199. 
his  friendship   for    Harley,    196 

(n.). 
he  asks  Harley  to  invite  him  to 

Brampton,  197-199. 
his  appreciation  of  Harley,   199, 

2(XD. 

his  estimation    of    Harley  as  a 

scholar,  212. 
his    character    contrasted     with 

Harley's,  217. 
member  of  Scriblerus  Club,  221, 

226,  227. 
member  of  Brothers'  Club,  222. 
his  description  of  same,  222. 
his    complaint    of    expense     of 

Brothers'  Club,  224. 
value  of  his  letter-diary,  230. 
his  works  have  become   English 

classics,  231,  232. 
his    character    of    the     Earl   of 

Oxford,  Appendix  L 

ToRCY,    Marquis   de  (1665- 1746), 
Harley's  letter  to,  139. 
his  remark  to  Prior  on  Assiento, 
148. 


INDEX 


255 


Tories,  composition  of,  29. 
early  principles  of,  30. 
Peace  party  in  reign  of  Anne,  30. 
their  sympathy  for  Pretender,  31, 

36. 
their     impeachment     of     Whig 

leaders,  34. 
their    reliance     on     support    of 

Queen  Anne,  40. 
they      carry      Occasional     Con- 
formity   Bill     through    House 

of  Commons,  40. 
sectarian  bitterness  of,  41. 
carried    second    Bill    similar   to 

Occasional     Conformity     Bill 

through   House  of  Commons, 

was  rejected  by  Lords,  41. 
decided  to   "tack"    Occasional 

Conformity  to    a    Land    Bill, 
41. 
their  indignation  with  Harley  for 

his  share  in  defeat  of  ' '  tacking," 

42  (n.). 
Anne's  preference  for,  76,  81. 
Harley  becomes  bound  to,  90. 
growing  confidence  of,  93. 
Harley  takes  office  as  leader  of, 

99,  201. 
Harley's  Cabinet  of,  103. 
Bolingbroke  aspires  to  leadership 

of,  160. 
proceedings    against    leaders  of, 

in  1715.   173- 
exaggeration    of  Jacobitism    of, 
187. 

Townshend,  Charles  Townshend, 
second  Viscount  (1674-1738), 
192,  193. 

Tregony,  Harley  member  for,  13. 

Triple  Alliance  signed  7th  Sep- 
tember 1 701,  33. 

Union  with  Scotland,  56. 

Utrecht,  Treaty  of.   Whig  opposi- 
tion to,  32. 
Bolingbroke  chief  actor  in  nego- 
tiations for,  137,  138. 


Utrecht,  Treaty  of — continued. 
negotiations  leading  up  to,  122, 

123,  137-143. 
criticism  of,  142,  143. 
what  England  gained   by,    143 

144. 
the    result     of    Harley's     peace 

policy,  204. 
Harley's  position  as  head  of  Tory 

party  after,  205. 

Walpole,  Sir  Robert  (1676-1745), 

allusion  to,  3. 
allusion  to  Peerage  Bill  and,  162. 
his  part  in   proceedings  against 

Tory  leaders,  173. 
elected      Chairman      of     secret 

Committee,   174. 
he      moves      impeachment      of 

Bolingbroke,   175. 
opposes  Mutiny  Bill,  190. 
his  secession  from  Ministry,  171 7, 

192. 
rejoins     Ministry    on    defeat    of 

Peerage  Bill,   193. 
became       acknowledged      Whig 

leader,  201. 
Wanley,    Humphrey    (i  672-1 726), 

Lord  Harley  writes  of  Prior's 

death  to,  196. 
his  introduction  to  Harley,  212. 
short  sketch  of,  212  (n.). 
his  character,  213. 
becomes  Harley's  library  keeper, 

213,  214,  215. 
West,   Stanley,   friend  of  Harley, 

44. 
his  letter  to  Harley  acquainting 

him  with  public  opinion,  45. 
Wharton,     Thomas,     Marquis     of 

(1640-17 15).  chief  manager  of 

Whig  party,  125. 
his  literary  friends,  229. 
Whigs  and  the  Bank  of  England,  22. 
composition  of,  29. 
became  War  party,  29. 
early  principles  of,  30. 


256 


INDEX 


Whigs — continued. 

in    William    iii.'s    reign    Court' 

party,  30. 
their  liberalism,  31. 
in  favour  of  Hanoverian  succes- 
sion, 31,  36. 
French    Protestant    emigres    the 

supporters  of,  31. 
their  leaders  impeached  by  Tory 

Parliament,  1701,  34. 
dislike  of  Anne  to,  38. 
Blenheim    gives    confidence    to, 

40. 
take     proceedings     against    De 

Foe,  64. 
their    accession    to     power    on 

death  of  Queen  Anne,  70,  171. 
elections  of  1705  in  favour  of, 

76. 
Godolphin  sides  with,  76. 
Harley's  resignation  of  office  in 

1708  a  triumph  for,  89. 
growing  arrogance  of,  92,  93. 
Marlborough     and     Godolphin's 

necessary  reliance  on,  93. 
revolt    of    Queen    against,     97, 

98. 
principles  of,  99. 
Harley's  triumph  over,  1 00,  137. 
their  hostility  to  foreign   policy 

of  Tory  Government,  125. 


Whigs — continued. 

their  condemnation  of  Treaty  of 

Utrecht,  142. 
their    accusation    of    Jacobitism 

an  effective  charge    for  party 

purposes,   189. 
their   object    in    introduction   of 

Peerage  Bill,  191. 
William   in.,    first  Triennial    Bill 

vetoed  by,  17. 
on  question   of   standing   army, 

19,  20. 
influence  of  his  death  on  conduct 

of  public  affairs,  29. 
posthumous  influence  of,  on  party 

politics,  31. 
Anglo  -  Dutch    alliance    key    of 

his  continental  policy,  31,  203 

204. 
dissolves  Tory  Parliament  Nov- 
ember 1 70 1,  34. 
his  own  Prime  Minister,  34. 
his  sixth  and  last  Parliament,  34. 
his    opening     speech,     and     its 

effect,  34,   35. 
his  death,  35. 
Wimpole,  home  of  Harley's  eldest 

son,  172,  193,  195,  203,  214. 
Windham,    Sir    William,     carried 

motion     for     introduction     of 

Schism  Bill,  160. 


PKINTKU   UV   MOKKISON    ANU  GIBB  LIMITKU     KDINUUKGH 


